


Stories of a really Dysfunctional Order of Heroes a.k.a. D'OH

by Kaipiroska



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Alcohol, Attempt at Humor, But a lovable one, Canon-Typical Violence, Crack Treated Seriously, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Drinking Games, Fluff and Crack, Implied Sexual Content, Kiran is a jerk, Kissing, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rough Kissing, Swearing, and an asshole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-04-03 17:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 42,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14000823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaipiroska/pseuds/Kaipiroska
Summary: A bunch of stories revolving around a rather peculiar Order of Heroes. From the always drunk summoner to the weird shenanigans with the multiple copies of heroes.Gonna use this as a dumping ground for all the drabbles. Maybe I'll give a proper story to the cool ones.First ones might be nsfw-ish





	1. The Bar (Anna)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bar. Of course the bar. Everything started taking a weird turn when they decided to build that bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one gets kinda lewd if you want more fluff stuff just skip to chapter 2

Since when she summoned him to the kingdom of Asrk, Commander Anna has always been at the Summoner' side, reaching the Five Star rank way before the royal siblings. Despite this, the commander couldn't deny the fact that the summoner, for a better lack of words, was an _asshole_. 

She already picked up on this fact when, after being summoned and helped her out (showing that despite everything, he is a great tactician), he waved the empty bottle he had with him since he was brough here and asked one simple question with a tipsy tone.

_"You got drinks around here?"_

At first, Anna simply deduced she probably called him in this world while he was celebrating, but soon she discovered that it was more likely to see Princess Veronica smiling rather than Kiran sober. Worst thing of all was the fact that despite chugging tons of liquor every day, Kiran always managed to have his mind lucid enough to make up winning strategies against their foes. 

Her impression of him didn't get better when she first introduced him into the Hall of Heroes, at that time still empty of the ornaments and banners that will eventually decorate it.

 _"You live like this?"_ he asked puzzled, almost offended of taking part of an order who lived in such spartan conditions.    

And that was the start of their constant arguments. If Anna was rather obsessed with money and the need to gain more of it, Kiran was the exact opposite, willing to spend every single cent he had to accommodate even the least necessary of needs.  Anna, in the end, had until that point been condescending of Kiran's expensive mannerisms, since it ultimately benefited the entire Order, from the upgrades of the castles to the expansions of the ranks. 

But when one day Kiran entered her room with a bag full of orbs, she knew trouble was on the horizon. 

"What are these?"  asked the redhead confused.

"110 orbs" said the Summoner, strangely sounding sober than usual. "We need a bar." 

"A bar." she said with a flat voice, her eyebrow rising up. 

"A bar." he repeated imitating her flat tone. 

"You can't have a bar." she replied, leaning down her head to face the papers she was working on her desk. 

"What do you mean _I can't have a bar._ " he said, his voice betraying a hint of irritation. Anna felt frustration building inside her. He was such a hothead sometimes. 

"It means you can't have a bar. Have you already started drinking this early in the day or have you just become deaf?" she asked rhetorically. 

"Maybe." he replied not understanding. "But that's beside the point--"

"That's exactly the point, Kiran. Your drunk ass wouldn't move an inch if you had a place where you can refill every time you finish your flask." she said rising up her head again to look at him. 

"It's not only for me, ya know." He said pulling out his beloved flask and taking a sip. "It's for the Order. Have a place to relax. To drink. Mostly drink." he said losing his train of thoughts. 

"Look, I was ok with decorating the Hall. I was ok with expanding the headquarters so we could welcome more troops." Anna's started to lose her calm. She wanted to call out the Summoner and his behavior once and for all for his own good. "Which, by the way, ended up being mostly Bartres and Firs!"

"Ain't my fault if the summoning stone likes to reunite families." he said with his arms crossed. 

"I was okay with sending you to explore that cave which you _promised me_ had a treasure at the end of it, which, by the way, was actually a damn _hot spring_."

"IT WAS GLOWING! WHAT HOT SPRING DOES THAT?" he raised his volume of voice as he tried to defend himself. 

" What I will not be okay with is realizing your wet dream of having your personal heaven while squandering my mone-- I mean, the Order's funds!" she said, rising up from her chair. 

"Damn it woman!" he said with an almost comedic tone, slamming his hands on her desk. "What's with you and your obsession with money?!  _Jesus_ _Christ,_  you're like the embodiment of the capitalism despite you being red." he exclaimed.

"What?!" Anna said confused more than ever. 

"A thing of my world, ignore it." he shrugged it off. "My point remains still! Can't you see that it's futile to have all that money if we don't invest it?!" he leaned closer to her. Anna did the same.  "Aw yeah? Like what?" she asked almost headbutting him. "Like the glass roof you insisted of having in the hallway?" she continued.

"Oh you know why we built it that way." cut shortly the summoner, not wanting to shift the discussion into a fourth-breaking wall argument. 

"Then what else?" she started again, pressing her forehead harder against his, their eyes staring at each other. 

"Like, _perhaps_ , the mannequins that you keep insisting on recycling in the training fields!" 

"What's wrong with them?" she inquired. 

"Have seen how they look?! They're basically a stick with a pot on their head.  One swing from my grandma will be capable of breaking it! At least give them a sack of flour as torso!" 

"We need flour for the rations! Just yesterday Celica came to me to ask me if we could purchase more bags of flour for the dining hall."

"You can't trust Celica with that! She thinks simple flour is more than enough for a meal. _Hell,_ she fed her men with flour in Valentia!"

"Doesn't change the fact that those mannequins are still usable!" she replied. 

"Keep going like that and they might as well change them with a stick with my robes, which by the way, despite your talk of how I spent so much money for everything,  I always treat it with great care and never actually bought another pair!" Kiran exclaimed.

"And why is so?" Anna replied with anger.

"Because you gave it to me of course!" yelled Kiran, equally angered. 

Silent fell after this statement, as the two of them realized what they just said. They also noted that they were so close to each other, their noses almost touching, that they could feel the breath of the other on their skin. The argument left them breathless, and they were forced to make heavy breaths. 

It was Anna who acted first, pulling him towards and kissing Kiran on the lips. The summoner, although briefly shocked, immediately returned it, their tongues entering's each other's mouths. Disregarding what was on the table, the couple mounted on the desk, Anna laying on her back as her arms warped around the summoner's neck under his hood while their makeout grew in intensity.

"This is wrong." Anna said crawling her fingers through Kiran's hair.

"Totally." concorded the summoner as he leaned to kiss her again.

They broke the kiss at the same moment for the same action: Kiran for reaching and unzipping his pants, Anna for slipping her hands under her skirt to remove her panties. However, a knock on the door startled them. 

Saizo entered the room after knocking, his head peeking through the door. 

"Commander Anna? I have the report you asked. Oh, good morning, Summoner." he said entering the room. Kiran was sitting on the chair behind the desk, writing on some papers without rising his head as Anna sat on the desk, legs crossed. 

"Thank you, Saizo. You can leave it there." she pointed the desk nearby the ninja. 

"Of..of course." said Saizo, stammering for a second as if he saw a candy. 

Saizo left the report and stood by the door, his face looking at the ground. Even without raising his head, the summoner knew the ninja was blushing. Anna tilted her head puzzled. 

"Is anything wrong?" she asked.

"NO!" he said extremely embarrassed, his face red. Upon realizing he just yelled, he became even redder. "I--I will go now." he said without adding anything. In mere seconds the door was closed and the ninja was gone. 

Anna brought her hand to cover her mouth. 

"You think he knows?" she asked Kiran. 

" _Definitely._ " he responded.

"How can you tell?" she asked betraying some concern. 

"Well, for one thing, I'm sitting in your chair, in your room. But the greatest giveaway..." the summoner pointed with his pen towards Anna's hand. 

The commander realized with shock that under her palm visibly peeked her red panties, in sharp contrast with the dark brown of her desk. She blushed so hard it almost became the same color of her hair. 

"Aww, gods" she said, laying her back on the desk, her upside down face now looking at Kiran.

"I need a drink." the redhead said. 

Kiran offered her his flask. The commander took a long sip while still having her head upside down.

"So, can I have that bar?" Summoner finally asked.

"Yeah, why not." said Anna, her will to live almost below the sea floor. "Just promise me you won't get _too much_ drunk, alright?" she asked him. 

"I would like to get that drunk only with you if I'm honest." he said seriously, his look unfocused on her face as he curled around his finger a chunk of her hair. 

Upon hearing this the commander smiled, and rose up to her knees on the desk, turning to face the summoner. Her legs now dangling from the desk touched Kiran's. The summoner lifted up his head to see the commander smiling. 

"Well, since word will probably spread soon enough, might as well continue from where we stopped, don't you think?" she said, leaning forward to face him. 

"I guess so." simply replied the summoner.

  _"I'll need a drink after this"_ though Kiran as Anna pulled him in for a kiss grabbing him by his hood.

 

Some days after, the bar was built. The summoner named it "Lovely Red". Nobody could guess why. Saizo never said what he saw that day, but he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable whenever nearby the commander or the tactician from then on. 


	2. The Oddity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the last tempest trial, Kiran encounters something really weird.

The battle was nearly over, now only 3 maps awaited the group of heroes before completing the tempest trial.  Despite this, Kiran noticed three of the four heroes of his group had gathered around to look at something.

"What's this all about?" questioned the tactician approaching them.

"I think you should see this, Summoner." said politely Reinhardt  "It's quite...fascinating."

Kiran joined with Fjorm, Reinhardt and Azura as he finally saw what was happening. 

Black Knight, the last member of their group, was chasing a Zelgius disarmed. Due to their heavy armor, they couldn't move very fast, giving the chase the feeling of watching two turtles chasing their tails. 

"You got to be kidding me." said Kiran nonchalantly. "Why is he without a weapon?"  but the summoner's question was met with silence. 

 **"COME BACK HERE AND FACE ME!"** yelled the Black Knight.  

Zelgius however, seemed more inclined to the idea of simply running away. 

"Should we help him?" asked Reinhardt. 

"No no, leave them be. I'm sure Black Knight will get him. Eventually. The map will end at some point." replied the summoner."Having said that--" he continued, laying on the ground, "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up if he catches him."

Without even leaving his companions the time to argue this decision, Kiran felt asleep. 

Reinhardt and Fjorm looked at each other, while Azura decided to cheer Black Knight in his chase. 

"Go Black Knight, go!" she said waving up and down her Hagoita. 

 **"YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY FOREVER!"** shouted the knight moving slightly faster, fueled by the encouragements.

Noticing that he actually moved faster than before, the others joined in the cheering in order to move on to the next battle. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I completely forgot the Zelgius glitch where he appeared disarmed.


	3. The Complaint (Robin, Corrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin and Corrin have to file a complaint.

The room was silent as Corrin and Robin looked at each other puzzled, waiting for the summoner to speak up. 

He was sitting on his chair, legs leaned on the desk, as he held a bag of ice on his head. 

"Uhm...Kiran? We've been here for almost ten--" started Corrin.

"Shsshhshshshs." interrupted immediately Kiran, raising his finger to shush the prince. 

"Not yet. Not yet." said Kiran with a mild pain in his voice. 

After a couple of moments, he finally spoke up again. 

"Alright, hangover gone. Tell me everything." the summoner said. 

"We want to file a complaint." said Robin.

"A complaint. Sheesh, feels like being back in my world." said the summoner. 

"As you may have noticed, we currently have in the order 5 Camilla and 4 Tharja." continued Robin. 

"And?" inquired the summoner. 

"And, well, Corrin can't pass a day without being bothered by his sisters while I have to check every evening before going to sleep if one of the Tharjas is not hiding somewhere in my room." said Robin blushing. Corrin was looking at the floor in an attempt to hide his reddened cheeks.

"And the problem is?" said oblivious the summoner. 

Robin tried to recall all the patience within him as he tried to explain Kiran the situation. 

"Look, we managed to win a war with one of them around ok? But now there are multiple versions of them, _without even counting the variants ones,_ and honestly, the situation is becoming quite dreary." said the white-haired tactician. 

"Well, just tell 'em fuck off then." said sharply the summoner. 

"We didn't really want to arrive at such point. We confided in your ability to resolve the issue in a more...subtle way. Without necessarily having openly confronted them about it." said Robin, his arms crossed and eyes closed. 

"Oh, I get it. You want them to not bother you anymore without necessarily hurt their feelings. _Barrell full and wife drunk. "_ Kiran recalled an old saying from his world.  _"Bunch of virgins, I swear."_ he thought. 

Kiran took a sip from his flask. 

"Well, usually when a unit falls in love with someone, the "clones" tend to love the same person/persons. If I actually managed to make Camilla/Tharja fall in love with someone else, you two should be fine."

"So wait, you want them to fall in love with someone else?" asked Corrin.

"What, you two of all people are gonna judge me for playing matchmaking?" said Kiran with a frow. 

Robin and Corrin looked away in embarrassment. 

"The real question is who should I pair with who..." muttered the summoner as he bought his flask to the mouth. Suddenly having an illumination he spat the flask content onto Corrin and rose up to his feet. 

"I HAD AN IDEA!"

\--

"Camilla, today you are with Tharja." said Kiran as he was departing the instruction for the next battle. "Watch each other's back, it's vital to the success of the mission" he continued. 

The Nohrian princess studied from head to toe the dark magician, as the plegian sorceress did the same. Upon a brief moment of silence, the two women nodded at each other and headed together to battle. Kiran pulled out his flask and took a sip. 

 _"And now we wait."_ he said with a smug smile. 


	4. The Advice (Corrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrin is bothered by his feelings and needs advice. Shame the only one willing to hear him is Kiran. Drunk nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually made all this subplot of the bar just for this short interaction.  
> Also, watch out for spoilers of Revelations.

It was late night. Corrin couldn't manage to sleep for the life of him, so he decided to take a walk among the castle's walls. Wandering around he stumbled upon Leo, who suggested him to head towards the bar that the summoner made built "in case heroes needed to relax". Corrin definitely needed to relax. As he opened the wooden door that led to the bar, he saw the place had a comfy atmosphere, with tables and chairs in wood and a warm yellow light illuminating the place. He also noticed that Kiran was sitting on the bar lodge alone. Hearing the door opening, Kiran turned to see who entered and raised his glass upon seeing the dragon prince. 

" _Little foot_! Glad to see ya!" he said a little tipsy. 

"Hello Kiran." replied Corrin. 

"Wanna a drink? It's on the house." He leaned forward and grasped a bottle. "But don't tell Anna." he winked. 

Corring seated near the summoner and watched as he poured a glass full of liquor. 

"May I ask what is it?" asked Corrin.

"It's called Wyvern Spit. They say it can make you forget about your worries. For a short while, at least."

Corrin drank the entire drink in one go without second thoughts. 

"Woah there, someone has something on his mind." commented Kiran. "What's troubling you, boy?" asked the summoner as he brought his glass to his mouth. 

Corrin let out a sigh. No one was around except a nearly drunk Kiran. No damage could be caused if he spoke his mind. 

"I have a crush on...someone."  said Corrin. 

"OHOH!" said Kiran, imitating the weird laugh that Hector often made. "Who's the lucky gal?" he asked. 

"Well..." Corrin bit his bottom lip as a frown took over his face.

"Oh, it's a lad?" asked Kiran curiously.

"No, it's not that..." said Corrin. "It's...it's Azura. I'm in love with Azura."

Corrin closed his eyes and brought his hands to hide his face as he waited for Kiran's response.

However, that never came. Corrin peeked through his fingers to see the unimpressed face of Kiran. 

"...and?" Kiran finally asked.

"Well, she's my cousin." Corrin said. 

"Uhuh." nodded Kiran. "How much do you love her exactly." asked Kiran out of blue. 

Corrin turned his head to face him. 

"Like, you love her level "hugs and whisper sweet things in her ears" or love level "break the bed in your dragon form while mounting her?" asked Kiran while punching his palm with the other fist as to imitate some rather lewd action.

Corrin's face went red and he took down another shoot before answering that brash question. 

"Honestly, both." Corrin finally answered. "Don't get me wrong, I love her dearly. We have so much in common. I...would like to make her happy. But... whenever she dances I feel so...so..."

The crash of a bottle made the prince jump back as he came back to his senses. "AH!" Corrin yelled scared. 

"Must have fallen something behind the counter. _Hope it doesn't happen again."_ commented Kiran, strangely remarking the last sentence. What a weird thing to do. 

"Listen, Corrin." the summoner said pouring another glass to the prince. 

"Your case with Azura is quite the oddball, given that you are the son of a dragon and she was the daughter of the former queen that later married said dragon... uh, reminds me of this ancient deity in my world, that despite being married, with her sister nonetheless, can't help but sleep with mortal women leaving countless half gods around the world..."

Kiran felt silent as he was holding his glass in hand. 

"Kiran?" asked Corrin, worried that the various shoots were starting to have an effect on him. 

"What was I talking about?" asked Kiran. 

"About half gods of your world?" Corrin tried to help. 

"Ah." Kiran took another shot. "Yeah, scratch that and let's get to the point now that I'm still lucid. If you love her, you should just be honest with her. I mean, it's not like you fell in love with her after you learned you were cousins, right?"

"Nope." said Corrin. 

"Then what the fuck are you worrying about. Arvis found about Deidre after having Julia with her and he still loved her." said Kiran, only to shiver after what he said. "Though maybe Arvis is not the best example to bring up." 

"But...cousins..." muttered Corrin. 

"There's a saying in my world Corrin. _"There is no more great virtue really_ _than fuck your cousin silly._ " " said Kiran warping his arm around the prince's neck. Corrin's cheeks blushed even harder. 

"So go free, son! I never even really considered you two related, if you ask me. Hell, ask the majority of the other summoners and they'll tell you the same thing! We ain't gonna judge ya. Your background is already fucked up as it is, if you can find yourself some happiness, grab it and never let it go!" said Kiran pushing Corrin off the chair. 

"A-alright." said Corrin shuttering. 

"Promise me you'll tell her, alright?" asked Kiran. 

"I-I'll do it!" nodded Corrin as he walked awkwardly towards the door. 

As the door closed, the smile on Kiran's face turned into a frown. 

"What the hell was that about?!" he asked leaning his head beyond the counter. 

The heads of Xander, Female Corrin and Ryoma emerged from the other side. Corrin blushing heavily. 

"Well, I couldn't bear to hear the details! I know it was supposed to be a "man's talk" but still..."

"You almost gave away your presence, _fairy feet!"_ said angrily the summoner. 

"There are children here, Kiran! I told you to don't overboard with the language!" replied Corrin.

"It's ok, we heard worse on the battlefield." said Elise smiling, as she pooped up from one of the tables with Sakura. "Good job with that talk, Kiran!" she continued.

"Yes, our mission was a success thanks to you." said Ryoma nodding. 

"I'll be honest, I had my doubts when we asked your help. Glad you proved me wrong." smiled warmly Xander. 

 _"Wouldn't be even the first time, Xander..."_ muttered between his teeth Kiran.

"Although I don't think you had to go that much into details. You could have just told him that what mattered was his genuine love for her." said Corrin.

"Then why didn't you told that yourself?" wondered Kiran.

"Because I am his female counterpart and it would have been weird." replied Corrin. 

Kiran sighted, pouring a new shot. "At least I can drink how much I want." he commented.

"On that matter, are you sure you'll manage to hold that much alcohol? You still have another discussion to have." asked Xander.

"Well, when I'll feel dizzy I'll cut short." said quickly Kiran, before chucking down another shot. 

This was not the evening he was expecting. He was ready to spend the night reading some books and getting drunk when he was approached by the nohrian and hoshidian family that asked him to help them out making Corrin and Azura confess the feelings they obviously felt for each other. Although he wasn't really folded of the idea, when they told him he would have to operate at the bar, the tactician accepted right away. The presence of the majority of the families in the bar was for both making sure none interrupted the plan or Kiran slipped something inappropriate in his talk, as it was well known he was the less raffinate person around. 

Out of nowhere, Takumi peeked his head into the room. 

"She's coming!" he muttered. 

Everyone fell back into their hiding spot, as the door opened and a blue-haired dancer entered the scene. 

"Ah! Azura! Nice seeing you here!" 

"Ah, Kiran. Good Evening. I'm surprised to see you up at this hour." said politely the dancer. 

"I could say the same to you! May I offer milady a drink?" he asked raising the bottle in his hand.

"Depends. What is it?" asked Azura rising an eyebrow. 

" They call it Wyvern Spit. They say it can make you forget about your worries. For a short while, at least." said the summoner pouring a glass. 

Azura immediately took the drink and drunk it in one go, leaving the summoner stunned. She shivered immediately after drinking it as if she was trying to bring it down shaking her body.

"Woah, someone's got problems." said Kiran worried.

"You have no idea." said Azura, dropping her formal appearance and sitting on the log, resting a hand on her already-reddened cheeck. 

"Why, _tell me more._ " said Kiran, his smile strangely wide for someone with mere curiosity...

 

 


	5. The Advice II (Corrin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrin has news for Kiran.  
> Short sequel to the previous story.

Corrin entered Kiran's room after a brief knock on the door. He caught the tactician brooding, his head resting on the back of his hands, focused on something on the wall. 

"KIRAN!" said panicking Corrin. "Sorry for barging in, but I need help!"

"Ah, Robi--I mean Corrin! _shess you two have the same name,_ how can I assist you?" asked Kiran in a loud tone. 

"I....I think I made a mistake!" said Corrin biting his thumb. 

"OoooOOh!" said with...shock? Kiran. "H-how so?" he asked. 

"I confessed my feelings to Azura." said sad Corrin.

"That's good!" said overly joyfully Kiran.

"...on the battlefield." continued Corrin. 

"On the battlefield!" repeated Kiran happily. "...On the battlefield?" repeated Kiran with a frown. 

"I was shielding her from a horse unit. I was parrying the hit with my back and managed to send the enemy flying by opening my wings. I was the entire time looking at Azura face to face... and I said it." Corrin started biting off his nails. "Gods, she didn't tell anything! Not even once the battle was over!"

"OOOooooOOO! Corrin! _You're an idiot!_ " said Kiran biting his bottom lip and supporting himself on the desk. 

Corrin felt guilty of having Kiran share his embarrassment, but he appreciated he was getting into the story.  

"AH!" yelled the summoner. "We need...to find...a solution!" said as if he was trying to focus. 

"Yeah, exactly. I mean, it all happened this morning, so I guess we could--" started Corrin.

"THAT'S IT!" said Kiran slamming his hands on the desk. 

Corrin jumped back and faced the summoner. Kiran looked at him and seemingly tried to elaborate what just happened. 

"I mean...there is still time! You should..agh...go...and clear it up! I'm sure she'll understand!"  said Kiran, now bringing his chair closer to his desk. 

"You're right! I have!" said Corrin with determination. 

"THEN GOOOoooooOOOO!" said Kiran, almost as if he was losing his forces while speaking. 

Corrin left the room with a smile on his face. He was glad Kiran was willing to hear him out. 

Left alone in his room, Kiran leaned on his chair, gasping for hair. A loud pop echoed in the room, making the summoner shivered. 

"Well well, we're really good with speeches here, aren't we?" said Anna poking her head out of the desk. Kiran sighted.

"This had to be the most difficult, embarrassing, devoid-of-alcohol mission you ever tasked me. You sadistic, money-grabber, good-for-nothing manipulator."

"I have also flaws." said Anna resting her finger over her mouth.  

"We need locks, at least for our doors!" said Kiran.

"Locks comes only in packages of hundreds and they're expensive." replied Anna. 

"Here we go again." said Kiran. 

The two somehow managed to argue whenever or not they should buy some locks while making out on the desk. 

\--

Saizo was already in front of the door, but as he reached his hand to knock, he felt a shiver down his spine, and deciding to follow his instinct, he thought it was best to pass another time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one has to be the dirtiest one I've made thus far.


	6. The Insult (Surtr)

Surtr laugh was deep and rough as he addressed the royals and Kiran while they were leaving for Nilf. 

"Alfonse!" yelled Sharena on the verge of crying. She didn't want to leave behind her kingdom at the tyrant's mercy. "Alfonse we can't leave!"

"We have to!" replied the prince, clenching his fists. "Please, trust me Sharena!"

"Look at them, running away. Yes, go! Flee!  I'll make of your kingdom a pile of ash while you're gone! Not that it would change much if you stayed." he laughed, head pointed to the sky. "Such a great example for your people! Leaving them behind while you run away with the tail between your legs!" 

Alfonse gritted his teeth at the insult, yet managed to control himself. He walked towards the portal when Surtr roared. 

A blast of fire nearly hit Alfonse, as Fjorm managed to save him just in time. 

"The little prince thinks he can simply give me his backs and flee? How arrogant." Surtr grunted. "I want to have a little fun with you before letting you go." he smiled as he started laughing again. Surtr would have never let them escape so easily without burning them up a little. They needed a distraction. And the summoner was enough drunk to think of one. 

"Fjorm." said Kiran leaning towards the princess. "Make me a snowball."

 "I'm sorry?!" asked incredulously the princess. 

"Just do it." 

"Why would--" 

"I'm not asking." replied sharply the summoner. 

 

Surtr's laugh was interrupted when his face was hit by a snowball. The monarch wiped away the already melting snow as he spat the pieces that manage to enter into his mouth. Raising his head, he saw the summoner flipping him off, as the others entered in the portal. 

"Fuck off Surtr, you fat, idiotic, cyclopic, tiny-headed, crispy burned peacock, bugger gasbag yobbo, chest-silly-mouthed, compensating-ax-wielder, overly-long cape tosser, carbon-pallette-barmy pox,  plug-ugly gone to the dogs arsemonger, gormless rip-off of a villain!" yelled the summoner in one single sentence, leaving much of the presents speechless.

Surtr for once had his mouth closed and eyebrows raised, Loki let a slight _"oh my"_ escape her mouth, and Laevatein's eyes betrayed surprise. Xander had covered Veronica's ears during the entire speech of Kiran, as the princess was struggling to understand what just happened.  

"You're going down! And I'll be there when it happens! And me face will be de last thing ya see when you kick da bucket of that ridiculous thing ya call a crown!" he continued, the accents of his world slipping out of his tongue as he spoke.

After having said that, the summoner walked straight into the portal, disappearing.  It was at that moment that Surtr noted no more Askr royals remained. The summoner's intervention was a distraction and it worked perfectly. 

 

There was a brief moment of silence. Everyone was expecting Surtr to go into an outburst of rage, instead, the Flame Lord started laughing, setting everyone on their edge. 

"Loki..." Surtr said. "Tell me...you said that summoner is from a special realm, right?"

"Yes, milord." 

"Ehehe...Laevatein." said the monarch. "Follow them and stop them. But bring me their tactician alive." 

"Yes, father." said the princess. 

"I want to hear him scream as I plunge Sinmara into his guts while he watches his world burn." said menacing the king. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to write a part where the summoner flips off Surtr and instead I recreated the 20 seconds long insult of the Scotsman.
> 
> EDIT: I fixed some stuff.


	7. The Drink Endurance game

It had been a stressful day. The tempest trial was only halfway through and the summoner was barely scratching the surface of the incredible amounts of stuff he could obtain. But the team was drained of its forces and Anna especially was so tired that she was merely able to follow him to the bar inside the castle. The place was moderately full, with most of the gruffest members of the order becoming usual customers. As they sat there on the deck of the bar, Kiran was gazing at nothing as Anna was resting her face on the wooden surface. Finally, Kiran spoke. 

"Ain't yar fault."

"Uh?" muttered Anna, snapping back into reality. 

"Ain't yar fault for today. Made a bad decision and fucked up everyone. I'm sorry."  said Kiran, recalling how the team lost the first time, losing their bonus points. 

"Pfft. As if this had been your first time." said Anna, her hand resting on her cheek. 

"What bothers me it's that I was so easily taken down. I'm a 5 star for crying out loud!" she said with a sudden burst of energy. 

"Maybe I'm not good at this." the commander continued.  Kiran took a sip from his flask. 

"Bullshit."

"You can't deny it." she replied. 

"Like I care." he touched her shoulder. "You know what, let's have some fun." 

"What do you mean?" she said with worry in her voice. Kiran's concept of fun often involved bottles and punches. And she sure had enough of both today. 

"Not fun my way." said Kiran almost reading her mind. "Fun your way." 

Anna was confused at this, but quickly realized what he meant when he sat up and raised up his voice.

"WHO'S UP FOR A DRINK ENDURANCE GAME?" yelled the summoner. 

The bar was filled with grunts of approval. Soon enough was put a table in the middle, as the summoner sat on one side of it. 

"Who's first?" smiled the summoner. Bartre sat on the other side. 

"You don't mind if I do, do you?" asked the ax-wielder. 

"Have to warm ya Bartr', I'm almost sober." said the summoner smugly, the crowd giggling. 

Anna understood what Kiran had in mind and her mood immediately changed as started rallying up people to her attention.

"Place your bets, everyone!" 

As the competition started, Anna was placing the bets while Kiran started chugging down shot after shot. Bartre, initially pretty confident, started having problems after the sixth drink until ultimately giving up after the 8th. 

The crowd cheered as the blonde rash man gave up and walked off, only fall after few steps into Dorcas' arms.  

"Dang it Bartre, you don't have the age for this stuff anymore." commented his red-haired friend. 

"Sorry Bartre, don't worry, maybe I'll raise you up to 4 stars!" laughed the summoner. 

"Alright, who's next?" he said looking at the crowd. 

A bunch of contenders entered and quickly left one after the other. 

Barst managed to hold it until the fifth shot, Ogma after the sixth and poor Donnel only after the first one. 

Kiran by this point was pretty drunk, more than usual, which said a lot, but still wanted to have one final go. 

"A-Alright! I can still go for another round!" said drunkenly. 

"Who dares?" he asked, as the crowd around him laughed and cheered. 

"I'll do." said a female voice. 

The crowd opened up as Nephenee walked towards the table and sat down, her expression focused. 

"Ain't Nephenee. You wanna a round, girl?" said the summoner, resting his elbows on the table. 

"Sure do." said the Lancer. She then proceeded to take the bottle of liquor on the table and chugged down almost half of its content, leaving the crowd oohing for the surprise. 

"I guess that makes us square, ye?" said the girl, her cheeks already red.

Kiran burst into a laugh and raised his glass for a cheer. Nephenee raised her glass as well and touched Kiran's, then the two proceed to drink the shot in one go. 

Shot after shot, they both seemed to don't show signs of giving up. 

After the 10th shot, Nephenee hands were shaking as she barely managed to hold still the drink enough to chug it down, meeting an explosion of cheers from the crowd as she did. 

Kiran tried to replicate the miracle, but at last, he felt his body giving up and fell backward, as the crowd yelled and cheered Nephenee for winning. 

When he went back in the world of the livings, he saw that Anna was carrying him, as they walked down the halls. 

"Haw..munch..did ya..maaaaake?" said weakly the summoner. 

"Well, I bet on Nephenee at the last turn, so I made quite a lot thanks to you." said Anna smiling, her eyes bright. 

"Eh." gulped the summoner. He was glad his plan to cheer her up worked. "Gllaaaaaaaddddd to asssisttt ya...."

As Anna put the summoner to bed, she leaned closer and kissed him. 

"Thanks. I needed that." she said. 

"*BURP*" replied Kiran involuntarily. 

Anna chuckled as she left the room and held the bag of coins in her hand, as a smile crossed her face ear to ear. 

"Now I'm gonna have fun counting you, little darlings."

\-------

Meanwhile, at the nursery, Lachesis and Lucius watched in shock as Dorcas brought a completely passed out Nephenee, together with other five people. 

"Just what happened tonight?!" exclaimed the blonde girl. 

"Drinking night with Kiran." replied Dorcas. 

The two healers let out a the same time an "ooh" of understanding, before taking assisting their patients.


	8. The Nilf shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nilf is cold af boi

The expedition to the kingdom of Nilf had been harder than expected. The cold and the snow proved to be a challenge even to the fiercest of the warriors of the Order. Black Knight managed to submerge his lower body in the snow at least 3 times, and Arya was trying to maintain her usual composure even if she was sniffling constantly. The least covered heroes were engulfed in covers, and even Sharena needed one in order to not catch a cold. 

"Fjorm, how do you manage to not tremble even an inch? It's downright freezing here!" said Sharena, shivers running down her spine.

"It is quite cold, to be honest..." remarked Alfonse. 

"You say so? I think it's quite warmer than normal. Muspell's doing, no doubt." the ice princess answered. 

"Well, if you think this is bad, I'm afraid for what's to come." said Anna appearing behind them, looking at the horizon. 

"Why is that?" asked Alfonse.

"Do you know that at this temperature the water freezes?" 

Alfonse initially did not understand what Anna was talking about until he connected the dots and his eyes widened with a look of concern. 

"Uuhhhh, what am I missing?" asked Sharena confused, with Fjorm expressing the same puzzled face. 

A blood-curdling yell answered for Alfonse, as the Royals rushed towards the source of the scream. Waiting for them was a probably what they were not expecting, as Kiran was in a full panic attack as he was trying to pour the frozen content of his flask inside his mouth. 

"THIS CAN'T BE! DAMN COLD!" he waved the flask up and down trying to push out the content but with no success as he cursed, slipping into the native language of his world. The royals couldn't make out most of it and often found themselves wondering who was that Elsa the summoner bragged about in his alcoholess delirium. Frustration brought him to his knees, as he accepted the harsh reality that his beloved liquor inside the flask had been frozen. Throwing his hands in the air, he lashed out a scream of anger as he cursed this kingdom and its godforsaken cold. The Royals just stood by, fearing the summoner might lash his frustration on them. 

"What he's gonna do?" asked Sharena. 

"I guess he will just not drink." answered unimpressed Anna, her hands on her waist. 

They stood watching as the yells of anger turned into sobs of despair. 

\--

Laegjarn was led into a trap. She realized it too late. She should have expected it from the reports. They all share a common trait: uttermost fear for the askrian forces. They described a sudden change in the enemy's army strategy, becoming more focused on attack rather than defense. She decided to intervene herself in order to prevent more losses. Before she knew it, they were already at her throat. The enemy soldiers attacked with uncharacteristic fury and disposed of most her men in a single turn. Without even giving her time to send her men against the attackers, the enemy's archers mowed down her flyers, her included. The Muspell general tried to crawl out from the wyvern crushing her, and with slow pushes tried to reach her beloved sword. She could hear heavy footsteps coming towards her, and realizing she would never reach her sword in time, she turned around to see who was standing in front of her. She saw a white hooded man, the tactician of Askr, but something was off. His eyes were wide. He emanated an odd aura, and his look made her crawl back in a defensive position. Those eyes were injected with pure and utter hate as they twitched from time to time. His mouth was a line. His hands seemed overtook by little spasms. Laegjarn felt the shadow of the reaper leaning closer to her. She knew this was the end for her. 

"You...you're a monster." she muttered. 

" No." came out a deep rough voice, as if his throat was arid as a desert. "I'm fucking sober." he replied sharply, as he reached Laegjarn's sword. The sword still pulsated with heat and the summoner brought his flask on top of it. After a couple of minutes, while Laegjarn looked mouth open with shock, the summoner opened his beloved flask and took a long sip. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never deprive a man of something he enjoys.


	9. The Spring Festival

Kiran was having the time of his life. Never since he had been summoned to Askr he had laughed his ass off so much. Rolling on the ground, wheezing and gasping for air, Alfonse couldn't help but stare at him in embarrassment. Sharena too was chuckling, although for different reasons. She was just so excited to finally meet another version of herself. Their bunny costumes were so cute. A feeling that Alfonse didn't share at all. And if the look of shame on his counterpart was of any indication, that feeling was mutual. 

They didn't know what they were facing when they entered this year's  Spring Festival tournament, but they got a clue it was gonna be weird when Kiran fell on his ass to laugh at the sight of his adversaries: a counterpart of the royal siblings dressed as bunnies. 

"Kiran, I beg you to stop." pleaded Alfonse, his cheeks reddened. 

"I'M SORRY LAD BUT THIS SHIT IS TOO FUNNY." wheezed the summoner. "I MEAN HAVE YOU SEEN THAT BULGE OF YARS?" he pointed at the bunny version of the prince "I KNEW YA WERE ROYALS AN ALL BUT YOU COULD KILL SURTR WITH THAT SWORD OF YOURS!" he was now kneed on the ground, coughing as he forgot to breath. "I GUESS THE FIRE EMBLEM WAS WITHIN YA THE WHOLE TIME!" Kiran had finally snapped. His laugh was loud, yet didn't manage to cover the comment of the bunny prince.

"Well, if you find it funny you should see what you're wearing." said the royal bunny. 

The laugh of the summoner came to an abrupt end. "What." he said raising his head up. 

"We come from a world where you're also our summoner." said the prince of spring. "Although I think he's more..." Alfonse was interrupted by a loud joyful voice announcing his presence in the battlefield. 

"HAPPY SPRING FESTIVAL!" yelled Kiran with a big smile on his face. He was wearing his usual white coat, but a pair of bunny ears was now dangling from his hood and formed a bow-tie around his neck, something similar to what Panne used to do. His shirt was changed for a sort of tuxedo with a V neck, and his pants were now thigh-black. His look reminded Kiran of the male dancers of his native world. And that was not a compliment. 

Sharena started jumping on her feet, commenting on how cute Kiran looked, Alfonse let out a slight chuckle, although not as loud as Kiran's previous one. Anna was just smiling smug, ready to take a picture incredibly not for money, but for her own amusement. Even the heroes with them expressed quite surprise at seeing their usual brash and vulgar summoner showing a more cheering and friendly attitude. 

Kiran was speechless. He looked at his counterpart like if he was seeing a ghost. He did not say anything. He simply stood up and pulled something out of his coat. Not his beloved flask, something bigger, a bottle of some unidentified brown liquid. He opened it, tearing away the stopper with his teeth and started chugging it down like there was no tomorrow. Everyone present looked at the tactician puzzled as he was drinking the entire bottle in one go. Bunny Sharena tilted her head, her arms on her waist. 

"What's gotten into him?" she asked laughing, but soon her smile turned into a frown as she saw her Kiran's pale face. The spring summoner's face was white, as he barely managed to mutter something. 

"H-He pulled out the emergency drink." said Kiran shaking. 

"Kiran?! What does it mean?!" asked troubled Alfonse. 

"Well, it means basically..." said Kiran twisting his bow-tie ears in frustration as the summoner emptied the bottle. 

_"...We're fucked."_

A loud crash was heard as the summoner broke the bottle and pointed the broken glass to his counterpart, his mouth stretched in an expression of pure rage.

**"YA'R FUCKING DEAD COTTONTAILS!"**


	10. The Wrong Pull (Hector)

Hector had followed the light when it called him. It asked him if he was willing to help them. Hector simply replied yes. The light engulfed him, surrounding everything around him. A whisper was heard saying _thank you_ as he felt light as a feather. The light then faded away and Hector found himself on an altar of sorts. 

"I am Hector, from a realm called--" 

Hector's speech was interrupted by an angered yell, as he saw a hooded man in a white robe yelling and cursing at him, barely held back by other two people. 

"Kiran please, control yourself!" Shouted the blue-haired boy. 

"LET ME GET HIM IMMA WRECK HIM! HE STOLE ME FOCKING AZURA PERFORMER!" yelled the hooded man, drooling. 

"Kiram it's not his fault! Besides, he's Hector, you couldn't hurt him even if you tried!" yelled the other blonde girl. 

"LIKE I WOULDA FUCKING CARE" shouted Kiran. 

Hector was taken aback by the weird show in front of him when he felt a hand on his shoulder leading him away from the scene.He saw a red-haired woman with a frown and a rather embarrassed expression. 

"Lord Hector, I apologize for the behavior of our summoner. If you will, I'll show you around while he _hopefully_ calms down."

"I don't get it, what's all the fuzz about?" asked Hector, turning his head to see the summoner now releasing his frustration on the blue-haired boy as he shook him back and forth while yelling. 

"Nothing, the Summoner has the ability to summon heroes from other worlds, but he doesn't get to choose which one. So if he is looking for a particular hero..."

"He might not even get the chance to found them." finished Hector. 

"Quick to pick up how things work here, uh?" Anna returned to her usual smile. "I'm sure you're gonna go around well with your other version and your daughter."

Hector let out an approval grunt and smiled, only to recoil when Anna's words sunken in. 

"Wait what?!" 

 A beam of light erupted behind them. Then a blood-curdling yell echoed from the altar at that moment, making Anna and Hector jump. 

**" A FUCKING WRYS?!?!!"**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really short one this time, sorry fellas.


	11. The realization (Alfonse)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfonse comes to an unnerving realization.

The arena was such a weird place. Alfonse and Anna were never deployed there, but they liked to see Kiran fight with the heroes against other summoners from other worlds. The interactions that Kiran had with the other contestants were...peculiar to say the least. Although he often mocked them when he won and insulted them when he lost, there was always this strange tone of familiarity in his voice whenever he talked to them. 

"I have to say, seeing Kiran acting so...friendly feels strange." said Alfonse 

"Well, it's mostly due to the fact they come from the same world." intervened Anna. Alfonse turned to see the commander with a curious look. 

"I spoke with the other Annas. The summoners all came from the same world apparently."

"That's interesting." said Alfonse. 

"More like _weird._ " said Anna. 

Alfonse gave the commander an inquisitive look. 

"Think about it.  At almost the same time, in all the worlds of Ask, appeared a summoner, gifted strategist, able to summon and send home even the fiercest heroes ever lived, and they all came from the same world." Alfonse never thought about that weird coincidence. 

"Then they keep each other in contact, build alliances, all the while their roster of heroes at their disposal keeps increasing constantly, they consult with one another and they known Heroes in and out, and to top it all off they daily fight each other in the arena to increase their skill level."

"Anna, where are you going with that?" Alfonse was clutching his hands tight. 

"All that I am saying is: are we really sure that Embla and Muspell _aren't_ the only nations we should worry about?" said Anna wondering still with her usual smile on her face. She didn't seem concerned but more curious. Alfonse didn't fell the same way. 

Alfonse turned around to see Kiran congratulating another summoner. He couldn't admit it, but he swore they smile looked strange. Almost as if they were empty. They turned to look at him, still smiling. There was something menacing about them. Alfonse mind suddenly raced. 

_Kiran said he came from a world with giant buildings of metal and steel and devoid of magic. Maybe since they can't open portals they can't invade other worlds if not this way. But..._

_But if they wanted that, they would have already done it, wouldn't they? Then...what if they don't want to?_

_What if they don't need to?_

Alfonse noted the strange aura that engulfed the two summoners. An aura that rose up, up in the sky. Alfonse followed with his eyes the rope of strange aura that went up. He saw what the rope was attached to, and he screamed. 

 

Alfonse woke up yelling, his eyes wide and sweat running cold on his face. He felt immediately a hand slapping the back of his head. 

"Keep it down, will ya." 

Alfonse was at the bar. Of course. It was all a dream. He and Kiran had a couple of drinks too much (well, maybe at least Alfonse) and he had a nightmare while passed out. 

"My apologies, I had the worst dream." 

Kiran turned after taking a sip from his flask. 

"You sure it was a dream?" he simply asked. 

"What?!" asked Alfonse, his face pale. Kiran let out a loud laugh and patted Alfonse's back. 

"Eh, just fucking with ya." Kiran rose up and left. "Now if you excuse me, I have a duty to attend to."

Kiran left laughing, but Alfonse remained silent at the desk of the bar. Staring. With an uncertain feeling in his guts. 

A feeling of some shattering truth, that made him shiver. And somehow, he understood why Kiran constantly drank. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably not canon, but who cares. I just wanted a 4th break wall story.


	12. The Night of Passion and Embarassment.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two lovers embrace.

Fate was quite the strange fella, for it brought together two bounded souls to meet again not in their world, but in another. And where war divided them before, now it united them. Their feelings have always been there since they were children,  but now that they were grown up, those feeling had evolved into a more...passionate need. And no immeasurable distance separated them now. They were in the same bed, touching each other as if they wanted to be sure it was real. Their bodies hugging, skin to skin, their lips clashing, unable to contain their love. Her hands feeling his abs. His hands  sinking in her red hair. Moans the only sound coming from the room.

They broke the kiss to see into each other's eyes. Her amber eyes  staring into his emeralds ones.

 

_“I love you.”_

 

_“I love you too.”_

 

They kissed again. There was nothing else in the world but them. They had all the time in the world and they didn’t even know who to thank for giving them this chance. Their eyes watered for the happiness. They were together. After all this time, the void that tormented them was filled. They wanted to be one. They made each other complete. The moans now were muffled by the shakes of the bed. The happiness turned into lust. They wanted to feel each other. They own each other. The pacing increased.  She smiled, halfway through happiness and ecstasy. He kept his eyes closed, attacking her neck to cover it with kisses and bites. Her hand crawling through his green hair. The bed shaked, one, two, three...again and again. Louder and louder. But it wasn’t synced with his thrusts. Another three? What were they, knocks? Three hard knocks banged at the door, almost tearing it down. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t stop.

The door slammed open with a kick, and Alm and Celica immediately turned to see what was going on. The summoner stood at the door, his eyes twitching, red for the tiredness, his hand shaking in clunge fists. He was breathing heavily, head almost sunk below his shoulder.

“Would you two.” he rasped  between breaths “STOP.”

“FUCKING”

“LIKE WYNERS IN HEAT!?” yelled at top of his lungs.

Celica’s face became redded than her hair, covering herself with the bed sheets. Alm was looking at the summoner embarrassed, his mouth cringing.

“I WOULD LIKE” Kiran restarted.

“To point out, that my room is RIGHT under you.” Kiran continued stomping his feet on the ground.  “And look, if it was just me I would have let it pass, but Catria, of all people, came to report hearing yells during her patrol. Catria. WHO IS ON GUARD PATROL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CASTLE.” he spitted.

Alm noticed that outside in the corridor there was Leon, leaning on the wall in an attempt to steady himself while he laughed his lungs off. Alm wondered if someone could die of embarrassment.

“So if you two want to have your sexy time, go ahead, but try to avoid WAKING UP THE ENTIRE CASTLE IN THE PROCESS.” The summoner slammed the door behind him. Leon’s laugh could be still heard.

_“LEON, FUCK OFF AND GET BACK TO WORK. God, I hope Nino hasn’t heard anything. I’m not ready to have to explain her and Jafar of the birds and the bees.”_

 

The summoner shouts could be heard from the corridor. Alm and Celica remained silent for minutes staring at nothing.

“Want..want to sleep?” muttered Alm.

“Good idea.” replied Celica.

Despite immediately sinking under the sheets, it took almost two hours before they managed to close their eyes, both for embarrassment and...other reasons.

 

The next day at breakfast was even worse. The various tables gossiped about the strange yells they heard the past night. The younger members though it was a strange creature while the older members...encouraged that idea, while giving looks at the table of Celica and Alm.

The Valentia table was silent. Alm and Celica didn’t touch food, staring at nothing with empty looks. Mae and Leon tried to keep a serious appearance only to break it to chuckles and giggles, while Boey kept his eyes closed  trying to ignore them, his face red as a tomato. Berkut, at Alm’ side, simply kept touching the bridge of his nose with his hand with an irritated look. Genny meanwhile was the only one eating, although she picked up the strange air that lured on the table.

“Uh? Why is nobody eating? Did something happened?” asked Genny.

“NOTHING HAPPENED!” said Berkut slamming his hands on the table a starting to chug down food in really un-royal fashion.

Alm wished for a miracle. And a miracle he got.

The summoner, that was eating with the Askr royals, jumped on his feet in panic.

“Where is it?!” he searched touching his body in search of his flask.

“Calm down, I have it.” said Anna, taking out his flask from her pockets and handling to him.  The summoner let out a sigh of relief and calmed down upon seeing his beloved flask.

“Thanks Dear.” let out Kiran with a genuine smile. The summoner suddenly  noticed the dining hall was silent. Turning his head, he saw everyone staring at him. Nobody knew about his thing with Anna. Hell, nobody knew if he was _capable_ of having a thing with someone, giving his personality. In order to avoid embarrassment, Kiran played dumbfounded.

“What?” he asked at the crowd of eyes.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Sharena leaning into him to grasp something. As her hand pulled out, she was holding a long curly red hair. Sharena looked at the hair. And then looked at Kiran. She looked at the hair again. Then she turned and looked at Anna. Anna looked at her. Sharena looked at Anna and at the hair. Then looked at Kiran and Anna.Alfonse stared at all three.  Sharena kept looking at Kiran and at Anna faster and faster. Kiran’s face betrayed his concern. He wished that Sharena was actually dumb as she acted. Unfortunately, Sharena wasn’t oblivious as her brother when it came down on social interactions. Her smile grew wider and wider as she giggled altering looking at Kiran and Anna. Kiran raised his hand fearing the inevitable.

“Don’t--”

“OH MY GODS!!!!” Sharena cheered, jumping at her feet. Kiran cringed. Anna hit the table with her head. Alfonse looked at the scene, and connected the dots, letting out a simple “oh.”

“Sharena stop--”

“YOU TWO ARE A THING!!!!!”

“Don’t--”

“YOUR CHEEKS ARE RED! YOU ARE A THING!!!! YOU AND COMMANDER!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Sharena yelled enthusiastic.  Her cheers were joined by other heroes, and quickly the entire hall was cheering Anna and Kiran. The summoner wanted to die. The commander was red as her hair. Away from the crowd, the Valentia table let out a sigh of relief. Genny was more confused than ever.

 

“I don’t get it. What happened?”


	13. The Grima's problem.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The order of heroes has a problem with the Fell Dragon.

If there is a downside of being in a relationship, it's that sometimes you have to do stuff for your partner that you really don't want to do. 

But Kiran was between the rock and a hard place with the current situation. Grima had caused quite some damage since he was summoned, from bothering Robin and the Ylissean royals to simply breaking stuff for the sake of it. Every action was his attempt to create as much dismay as possible. And of course, in order to repair those damages, the order was forced to spend money. The summoner swore he had never seen Anna so stressed, not even at the beginning of all this story when they had a spoil castle, the enemy kingdom breathing at their neck and a Virion as the only summoned hero.  So Kiran had two possibilities. Either try to rustle with the Fell Dragon, the wings of death, the breath of ruin, or handle a pissed off Anna.

.

.

.

Grima wasn't in his room when the summoner searched for him. He found him following a trail of broken vases, that littered the entire corridor. Grima was staring at the last vase, his hand already behind it ready to push it. He noticed the Summoner, that looked at him tensely. Grima slightly pushed the vase forward. 

"Don't--" 

A loud crash echoed in the corridor as the vase broke touching the floor.  Grima stared at the summoner with eyes wide open and mouth closed tight. His expression spoke for himself. 

_Bitch._

The dragon won't listen to reason. He walked down the corridor, his hand scraping the wall and tearing down the banners. 

"Why are you like this." sighted the Summoner. The fell dragon turned his head, right above the shoulder, his nose picking up. 

"Because I can." he grinned.

The summoner took a long sip from his flask. This was gonna be tough. Grima was different from the other heroes. Where some would be easily bribed with glory, money or simply power, Grima did not need anything of such.  A living god inside a human vessel was quite hard to satisfy if its goal was simply destroying humanity.  Summoner took another sip. Besides, trying to talk it out was pointless, since he wouldn't listen to anyone anyway since he saw everyone as worms. Grima was the quintessential incarnation of ego.  The only person he would like to spend time with would be...himself. 

The summoner spat from his flask. He had it. He knew what to do. 

The following night, Nino was walking down the halls to get some sleep.  She just left the library where Mericc gave her lecture lessons when she heard some crawling echoing in the corridor. Following the sound, she found the summoner dragging a big, heavy bag filled with orbs. 

"K-Kiran?" muttered the little green mage. The summoner stopped in his footsteps but didn't turn around, as if he was ashamed of what he was doing.  "Where did you get so many orbs?" asked incredulous Nino.

The summoner didn't answer. He simply turned and gave her a blank stare. 

And he kept dragging away.

Kiran went missing for two days. As they were starting organizing search groups, the summoner returned with a little army behind him. Archer, healers, daggers, every possible grey outcome was present. Also Wrys. A lot of Wrys. But the one that stood out of everyone was the purple figure floating. The summoner didn't introduce the newcomer to the Order, and simply guided her to the Training tower. The next day, Grima was called into the Summoner's room. The room was quiet as the Fell Dragon entered. He immediately noticed two figures waiting: one was the summoner, the other was...himself. Or rather, herself. A female version of the Fell Vessel stood beside Kiran, floating. 

"Grima! Glad you came! I wanted to introduce you our new addition." Kiran gestured the flying vessel. "Grima, I present you Grima." The female vessel floated, studying with a grin her male version. 

"Fascinating." she muttered smiling, bringing a finger to her cheek. 

M!Grima looked in awe gazing at his female version. Such power and such elegance, only a worthy vessel would have been able to shine all his dooming might. Grima male looked at his counterpart with interest. Female Grima actually stopped floating to look at M!Grima eye-level. The two stood in silence for a while. Then she grinned and extended her hand. He replied taking it and bowing. F!Grima giggled with malice and started floating again. M!Grima smirked and kept holding her hand as they left. 

Kiran took a sip from his flask. This had to be the weirdest arrangement he ever pulled off. But after Grima stopped breaking stuff for the sake of it, finally allowing Anna to relax, he understood it was worth it as she one day grabbed him by the hood and pulled him into her rooms for a"strategy meeting". 

"You know, I never would have thought that adding another Grima would have solved everything." said Anna resting her head on his chest. Kiran brushed her red hair,  almost dozing off.

"Sometimes two broken pieces make a whole." he said. 

"I kinda agree on that." said Anna looking at him. 

Their tender moment was broken off when a loud crash echoed in the castle. Upon looking outside from the balcony, two gigantic Grima's heads were poking outside of the castle. Stranger thing, it looked like they were on top of each other, and their roar sounded far sweeter than usual. 

The two stood silent while the strange scene devoloped in front of them until the summoner spoken. 

"You think this counts as masturbation or incest?" asked Kiran as leaned to take a sip from his flask. 

However, Anna grabbed it before he could, and emptied the bottle in one single go. 

"We are gonna need a lot of money for that." said the commander. 

 


	14. The Newfound Resolution (Book 2, Chapter 7)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Surtr fucks up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spoilers for the new story chapter of Fire Emblem Heroes.

The flames surrounded everything. The smoke was intoxicating. Gunnthra, barely able to move, crawled towards her sister, gasping for air. Fjorm was holding back the tears as there was nothing they could do. They arrived too late. Surtr had already stormed the place and tortured Guuntrha in an effort to find out why the Askr royals went to the kingdom of Nilf. And as it wasn't enough, he killed the elder princess in front of her sister. Yet, Gunnthra still lived, fueled by her sheer will, and now that the fight came to a halt, she was close enough to fulfill her role. Everyone was still as they noticed Guuntrha crawling towards them, making Anna stop barking commands. 

"Oh.. My dear Kiran." she muttered. Fjorm could feel her eyes watering. Seeing her sister like this was too much. Sharena and Alfonse were shocked, unable to move. The prince hated feeling so useless, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't move his legs. At that moment, Alfonse realized that the summoner hadn't spoken. Not only that, since they arrived and saw the terrible fate of the princess, Kiran had been silent. No strange remarks. Nothing. And then he saw him walking forward towards the princess. He leaned over her, lifting her head. The royals were stunned, but Anna was even more surprised. Kiran's face...for the first since she knew him, he looked serious. His eyes conveyed sadness as if this wasn't the first time  he dealt with a similar situation. Surtr cringed, disgusted. Guuntrha smiled, feeling Kiran's thumb brush off her cheek some dirt, and muttered her final words while resting in the summoner's arms. 

"On my name...Gunnthra, Nilf's child...Stone, to its vessel...with my body...with my soul..." a bright light shined for a second, before dying mere seconds later.

Tears started falling down Fjorm's face, who tried to cover her mouth with her hand. "Oh, my sister..."

Gunnthra smiled one last time, the head of the summoner so low that his face was now covered entirely by the hood. 

"It is done. My role is at an end...your divine weapon... I entrusted the power to you...Kiran...follow the light..." Gunnthra's breaths started slowing, and her chest movements became less apparent.  "I am so glad we were able to meet at last..."

"The pleasure was mine." Kiran spoke with a warm tone. The princess widened her smile. 

"..."

Gunnthra eyes remained open, but her breath stopped. Fjorm felt her knees crumble. "Gunnthra..."

Kiran closed her eyes with two fingers. The face of the eldest princess was at peace. Surtr grunt snapped back everyone on reality. 

"So she held off death for a while, for what purpose?" the emperor looked at Kiran "Could it be that you are the one, Kiran?" The summoner didn't move. He didn't even raise his head to face him, he kept looking at Gunnthra. "Fascinating, the hopes rest with you. I will have to make sure you burn next!" Surtr laughed, the embers around him igniting for the enjoyment he was feeling. Anna wanted to rush and grab the summoner, but he suddenly rose up. He was shivering. His hands clutching into fists. For the first time, he met the gaze of the fire lord. Surtr couldn't help but grin at the sight. The summoner's eyes had an inner fire of pure rage and determination, like a lion cub that it is forced to fight for its life. Kiran smiled, but his eyes still screamed anger. 

"You did quite something incredible here, Surtr." he said almost laughing. But behind the joking tone it could be heard the shakiness in his voice.

"Oh?" the tyrant said raising an eyebrow. Kiran pulled off his flask from his coat.

"Never during my stay here in Arsk have I ever felt so _livid_ that I didn't want to drink." he opened the flask with violence and let the content spill on the ground as he relaxed his arms. Some of the liquor fell on his robes, but he didn't care. 

"So. Congra- _fucking_ -lations. I kinda fucking hate you now." he smiled widely in anger.  "And let me give you an advice, king of the cinders." Surtr grinned. Seeing the summoner barely holding back his anger was a delightful show. 

"When you die. And trust me, you have my word, _you will die,_ keep your mouth shut. 'Cause I will piss on your corpse. If there's left any once I've done with you, granted." 

Surtr stopped smiling. Menaces and curses were funny since he received so many. But this? This was just distasteful. Anna rushed and grabbed Kiran's sleeve.

"Summoner, we're leaving. NOW." said Anna worried. Kiran didn't flinch and kept his eyes locked on Surtr. Anna kept pulling but he still wasn't moving. 

"SUMMONER." said Anna. Kiran studied the black eye of the Lord of Flames. There was nothing. Empty black sockets. As if the fire had consumed every little fiber of his being. 

"KIRAN!" said Anna. The summoner snapped back from the void that Surtr's eyes send him. "Kiran we need to go!" There was hurry in Anna's voice, but Kiran perceived also something else. It was despair. She was begging him. Kiran felt like an idiot for making Anna worry so much. He turned and left. The flames rose once again, this time engulfing everything. Surtr disappeared in between the flames, his frown following Kiran. 

\---

 

After securing themselves to be safe, the Order stopped to catch a breath. Sharena quickly noticed that Fjorm wasn't present. Worried to have lost her during the escape, or worse, she actually went doing something stupid, the group started searching for her. They found her quickly enough, she had stayed behind, watching helplessly the smoke rising from the temple. She fell on her knees as she started sobbing. Everyone present lowered their heads, saddened by the events and at loss of words to confort the ice princess.  Her cry quickly shifted in full-scale yells of frustrations as she started punching the ground. To the surprise of everyone, the summoner was the first one to approach her and stop her, putting a hand on her shoulder, and hugging her as she continued crying.

"It's ok Fjorm." he said as she kept weeping. "Let it all out. Don't let the flames take over you." The Arsk royals quickly caught up with them, and they kept consoling the ice princess while Kiran walked away.

Kiran found Anna waiting for him, arms crossed and leaning on a three. Despite her apparent frown, Kiran could see her concern. They stood in silence for a while before she hugged Kiran. 

"Sorry." said the summoner.

"You're an idiot. When a superior gives you an order, you follow it, damnit." said Anna, holding tighter. 

"I know." 

"So? What do we do now?" asked Anna broking the hug. 

"Ain't it obvious? We follow the light and kill Surtr." said Kiran looking at the horizon. "I ain't even gonna touch a drop of liquor." he continued. 

"Uh?"

"I want to be lucid when we take him down. So I can remember his face when he'll realize that even the greatest fire ends in mere cinders." said Kiran as he looked at his flask. He looked up to see Fjorm hugging Sharena, while Alfonse patted her shoulder. Kiran threw away his flask, launching it far away as he could. Anna walked beside him. 

"Surtr said he was told of the situation by Loki." commented Anna. 

"Yeah. You know what it means?" asked Kiran. 

"No."

"It means we have actually _two_ cunts to take care of."

Kiran clenched his fist, but relaxed when Anna's hand touched it. He then held her hand and looked at her. Anna let out a little smile. 

"We'll take them down. I'm sure you'll come up with some killer strategy now that you want to stay sober." she winked at him. 

"It's gonna hurt your alcohol sales though." 

"I can sell Muspell's weapons." 

"Goddamnit Anna." said Kiran shaking his head while smiling. 

"First Rule: whenever a sale drops, another rises." she said placing her finger over her mouth smiling. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the new chapter made me a bit upset. Also I don't know if he will stop drinking. The next chapters from now on are probably set before these events (or after, when Surtr is defeated).


	15. The Mastermind Strategist (Saias)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saias is one of the greatest tactician ever lived.  
> Kiran is a drunk bafoon who is currently sober.  
> Literally, how can it be even a fair competition?

 

Sunny day, clear sky, not a breeze of wind. Ideal conditions for a battle. Saias looked at the hill in front of the fort he was overseeing. The enemy would have probably appeared from there to study the battlefield. Princess Veronica and other Heroes under contract warned him about the danger of the Order of Heroes, in particular the tactician they recently recruited among their ranks, who seemingly turned the tables of the conflict in favor of Arsk, until King Surtr stepped in. Saias felt curiosity in facing off an adversary capable of making the stoic Princess Veronica frown in anger. This fight would be quite the test for his strategic skills, he was sure of that.

\---

Sunny day, blue sky, zero wind. And his sober state didn’t let him enjoy it. Kiran knew he promised himself to avoid getting drunk until he defeated Surtr, but still, having such a beautiful day and not enjoying it with a drink was such a _pain._ Although, he had a battle to oversee, so there maybe it was for the best. He thought about it. Nah, it would have been better with a drink. Thinking about it, he always carried a bottle with him, but that was "the emergency one", the one to be opened only if things got really stressfull. He turned to see the group of heroes behind him: Lyn was chatting with Inigo while Arvis was sitting behind her on her horse. Reinhard was silently galloping ahead of them. He and the group reached the hill right above the battlefield, where they had to extrapolate another hero from that little brat homicidal fingers. Upon the hill, Kiran took out the scope Anna gave him (“with a discount” _That damn greedy beautiful--)_ and took a look to identify the target. After a couple of seconds Kiran closed the scope and called out Reinhard. The mage knight dismounted from his horse and approached the summoner.

“Summoner?”

“Take a look and tell me if you recognize someone, Ann-- _Commander_ told me he was a hero from the region of Thracia. I think you would identify him quickly.”

“Didn’t the commander give you a letter with all the necessary informations?” asked Reinhard taking the scope. Kiran slapped his forehead.

_“ I forgot I had it. Can’t even play the drunk card this time. ”_

Kiran groaned and searched through his body until he found it and pulled it out from his coat, opening it as the rest of the group catched up. Reinhard closed the scope.

“No doubt, it’s Saias.” he said.

“Saias?” asked Arvis with tone more concerned than usual.

“ _Bishop of Flames”_ added the summoner reading with deadpan voice the letter.

“Considered a master strategist in all the continent of Jugdral” Kiran raised his eyebrows and made an impressed face “ _Fancy fella._  He is the illegitimate son of  Aida of Velthomer and Arvis--” Kiran stopped on his tracks, his eyes widening before he looked up to Arvis. The emperor felt uncomfortable by the summoner’s gaze and quickly realized everyone was looking at him. Reinhard hummed before he kept looking at the battlefield. Lyn frowned and Inigo simply looked surprised. 

“Really Arvis?” asked Kiran.

“I have nothing to say.” Arvis advert his eyes to look somewhere else. What an unnecessary inconvenience.

“Jesus Christ man, learn how to pull out.” said Kiran. The summoner turned and looked at the battlefield. Saias sure was ready to give them a warm welcoming.

“Do you have a plan for take down a strategist I would considered in equal measure only to you?” asked Reinhard. Kiran  stood in silence studying the battlefield before he pulled out his trusted flask and sipped it.

“I do.”

“I thought you stopped drinking.” Reinhard commented raising an eyebrow.

“Applejuice.” said Kiran. Reinhard kept looking sceptic.

“With a bit of liquor.” Kiran added.

Reinhard rolled his eyes.

“Hey come on, you can’t expect a lad to stop drinking altogether. Beside, this thing couldn’t make me tipsy even if I chugged it down altogether.” said Kiran exasperated shakering his flask. “Come on now, get on that high horse of yours and get in position.”

\---

 

Saias had his men ready and lined. He saw the summoner shouting orders.  Reinhard moved forward and took down Sias' mounted swordsman. One down already. Had to the expect nothing less from Reinhard. Luckily the green mage would  have handled him. Another horse rider, an archer with green hair, charged and took down the green mage. Unfortunate. But she was exposed. Either he jumped  now into the fight or he would likely see his archer and his wyvern rider get overwhelmed. The men waiting inside the fort wouldn’t make in time. Saias charged forward chanting and shot the archer. The impact of the magic blast made her recoil and Sias though it was over, until two arrows hit the ground near him. He though he would have been more effective. How arrogant of him to assume he would just because of his gifts. A blast of fire flew over his head and Saias saw Arvis charging another attack.

Saias knew his father was recruited by the Order, but meeting him on the battlefield...how much did the summoner plan this? Arvis shot another blast, the explosion of flames so strong pushed Saias behind of several metres.  As he lifted himself up, he ordered his other men to charge. The rest of the soldiers rushed against the enemy, meeting their arrows and magic blasts. Dusting the dirt off his clothes, Saias noted the peculiar behaviour of the enemy. They were still, never charging, waiting for the enemy to be within reach.  _They are pretty passive. They are waiting for somthing._

Saias widened his eyes with the realization.

  _It was a decoy strategy._

Saias felt footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw the summoner standing right in front of him. He was relaxed. His face in a frown.

“You are the enemy tactician. What kind of tactician puts himself on the line?” asked Saias, ignoring the fact that he just did the same. _At least I know  how to defend myself. Their summoner doesn’t seem to know even that._

“The one who is not drunk enough to feel complied with just staying behind while he puts the life of his friends at risk.”  said Kiran answering the question.  

Saias pondered for a moment the summoner’s words, then smiled. What an odd fellow. The bishop took his tome in hand as he started his chanting.

“Very well then, we shall test this. Have at you!” said Saias. However before he could attack it,  he felt a sharp pain in the head as the bottle the summoner throw at him made contact with his temple. Saias fell on the ground unconscious, his hair wet for the content spilled on his face as the bottle broke with the impact. Kiran walked over to him.

“Giants crumble even beneath children if you hit them in balls, lad.” said Kiran sipping from his flask. He then shed a tear for the good alcohol sacrificed to achieve victory. He picked up Saias and carried him over the battlefield, where the rest of the group was waiting. Another successful mission. He wondered if it was ok to drink as celebration.


	16. The Advice III (aka The Choir group)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiran has enough of Corrin being a little bitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's more corny than cornman.

As the last enemy fell to Corrin’s Yato,  the battle was over. Ninian let out a sigh of relief while the crazed Legion calmed down. Corrin sheathed  his sword while he helped Azura pick herself up. Kiran watched the team with a smirk on his face before sending them off. He noticed Corrin smiling at Azura, and the girl replying waving her hand. He was glad the two of them finally confessed their emotions. 

.

.

.

.

“The fuck do you mean  _ they haven’t confessed yet?! _ ” asked Kiran. 

Female Corrin sat on a chair, legs crossed and frown on her face, in front of the summoner’s desk in his office. Thankfully (or sadly) this time Anna wasn’t underneath it teasing him. 

“Exactly what I said.” she replied. 

“Didn’t he already confessed it?” said Kiran with exasperated look.

“He backtracked.” she grunted.

“WHAT.” Kiran slammed his hands on the table. 

“Something about “Having a better occasion to say it.”” she said mimicking the voice of her male counterpart. She crossed her arms tighter, frustration visible on her face.

“And Azura?” asked Kiran. 

“She was happy with the first confession.  Startled at first, but happy. Now that he backtracked she’s having doubts.”

“OK THAT’S IT.” Kiran stood up and pulled his flask from his coat. He took a long sip and stormed off, despite Corrin’s questions. He walked down the other side of the castle with a face so pissed off it could only match that one time Valter thought it would have been funny to dispose of his stock of alcohol (he learned in the hard way it wasn’t). Kiran kicked off Corrin’s door, making the prince jump off his bed and on to his feet. He was brooding. 

“K-Kiran!” Corrin stammered.

“ _ Mopey bitch”  _  said with poisenous sarcasm the summoner.

“May I know why--” 

“You fucking know why,  _ coward.”  _

Corrin’s cheeks flushed. 

“A-ah. I see you found out.” 

“Exactly. So I’m gonna help you out.  _ My way. _ ”

“R-really?!” said Cordin incredulous. 

“Oh yes.” said Kiran grinning and leaning forward. “But you are not gonna like it.” 

Corrin gulped as Kiran put a hand behind his back and guided him away from his room.

“Tell me, how do you fair at singing?”

\---

Took a couple of day to plan everything, a week or two to organize the group and a lot of sleepless nights in order to keep it up with the war. Thankfully the summoner had his trusted flask and Anna’s occasional visits for “strategic meetings”. Finally, almost three weeks later everything was set.  A crowd of men stood in the middle of the ba, chatting and preparing. There was a bit of tension in the air that everyone could percieve, except for Kiran, who drank without a care in the world. 

“Are you sure about this?” asked worryingly Corrin. 

“We’re just doing what I would do to confess me’ love to a lass. Some of my world would think of this as corny, but I say the Old ways work in this setting.” said Kiran sipping from his flask. 

“Let’s just hope this plan of yours doesn’t backfire on our image.” said Xander. 

“With your Spring version hopping around you’re not the one who should worry about his public image.” answered Kiran. Xander frowned and Ryoma consoled him patting his back, while still laughing. 

The door of the bar opened slightly, and Jafar entered. 

“Target approaching.” 

“Good. Everyone in position. Jafar, ya wanna join us?” 

“....No.” said Jafar closing his eyes. 

“Nino is between them, do you know that?”

“...Yes. But I think it’s stupid.” 

“Love is stupid, sand boy. It makes you do stupid things.” 

“...it does.” Jafar however just leaned on the nearby wall instead of joining them. Kiran did not insist further, it was already a miracle he declined the offer (or worse, that he interpreted it as an order). He knew this was a bit too much for him. Hell, it was a bit too much for everyone.

 

The door opened, and a group of women entered in the room, captained by Anna and Azura. The songstress jumped when she saw Corrin right beside Kiran. Anna, however, looked pretty smug. She was aware of what the summoner was planning. 

“Oh? Did our dearest summoner just invite us all here for no particular reason, maybe he wants to throw a drink game?”  she said bringing her finger to her mouth. 

“Cut that out, ya red wagon.” said jockinly Kiran. “Azura, I think there’s a lad here that wants to tell you something.” Kiran slapped Corrin’s back so hard that it choked out the air out of him. Recomposing, Corrin took a deep breath, his face red. 

“Uhmmm. Azura.” the songstress blushed when she heard her name brought up, and stopped looking at the ground to look at Corrin.

“I have been trying to express my feelings for you for a while, but I never managed to have the courage to tell them or endorse them. Therefore, Kir--”

“*AHEM*” 

“ I  asked the others to help me out.” 

 

“Azura, the truth is I want to be more than your partner in battle, I...I... 

 

_ 'll be your dream, I'll be your wish, I'll be your fantasy _ .”

Corrin bursted out singing. Azura opened wide her eyes, her cheeks red. His voice was not well chanted, but it wasn’t displeasing to listen. 

The summoner joined in, putting his hand on Corrin’s shoulder.    
_ “I'll be your hope, I'll be your love, be everything that you need.”  _ sang the duo, before the choir joined them. 

_ “I love you more with every breath, truly madly deeply do” _

The crowd of women awed. Among the choir there were some of their beloved. Deidre blushed when she saw Sigurd among the choir, and so did Ninian and Mathilda.    
“ _ I will be strong, I will be faithful 'cause I'm counting on _

_ A new beginning. _ _   
_ _ A reason for living.  _

_ A deeper meaning.” _

Kiran darted a look at Anna. She was recording the thing with her precious “recorder tome”, but she couldn’t hide her smile and winked at him. He winked back.   
“ _ I want to stand with you on a mountain. _ _   
_ _ I want to bathe with you in the sea. _ _   
_ _ I want to lay like this forever. _ _   
_ __ Until the sky falls down on me” 

Nino’s smile was wide for the display, but went even wider when she noticed Jafar mumbling the song of the choir. The assassin noticed she was looking at him, and shut his mouth as he looked at the ground. 

A over-excited Legion hugged in a tight hug Kiran and Corrin, almost choking them.    
“ _ And when the stars are shining brightly in the velvet sky, _ _   
_ _ I'll make a wish send it to heaven then make you want to cry” _

Alfonse and Sharena were watching from the distance, Alfonse with a puzzled look in his face, Sharena barely able to contain herself. 

Fjorm was leaning on the desk of the bar, with her another couple of heroes who prefered to be by their own, but still enjoyed the show.  _   
_ _ “The tears of joy for all the pleasure and the certainty. _ _   
_ _ That we're surrounded by the comfort and protection of _ _   
_ __ The highest power, in lonely hours, the tears devour you”

Corrin took a deep breath and marched forward, kneeled and  took Azura’s hands. The girl blushed deeply, but kept her eyes locked with dragon prince. The choir gathered up as they were hitting the final tones. 

_   
_ _ “I want to stand with you on a mountain, _ _   
_ _ I want to bathe with you in the sea. _ _   
_ _ I want to lay like this forever, _ _   
_ __ Until the sky falls down on me.” 

 

Corrin stood up, eye to eye with Azura. They both were red as tomatoes. Corrin simply whispered the words, but it was enough.

_ “I love you.” _

Azura embraced Corrin while the crowd cheered. 

“About fucking time!” said Kiran.

The following hours passed with the heroes cheering and partying. Kiran was sat at the bar desk when Anna approached him. 

_ “ _ Thanks to your little show, I think I have found our new funds for next month!” 

_ “ _ Good. Cause I was thinking we need to expand the barracks.”

Anna sighted. “You’ll never actually gonna let me make a substantial profit, are you.”

_ “ _ I enjoy seeing what you come up with to gain more funds.” said Kiran smugly. Anna sighted and moved to take a drink. Kiran noticed Female!Corrin walking towards him, a big smile on her face. 

_ “ _ I have to thank you for making sure Corrin would have finally confessed his feelings.” she turned to see the two lovebirds talking, their cheeks reds mostly thanks to the alcohol. “They look so happy.” 

“Ay, don’t worry lass, wer’ gonna find ya a hunk to hook up to for you too.” said Kiran drinking.

Corrin turned around, her face red. 

_ “W-What?!”  _

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by these fine gentlemen.  
> https://youtu.be/ruAF71UVMTc  
> In the morning I'll fix the damages.


	17. The Calm before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiran is late for the tempest trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made this after the fact that I didn't realized that the TT started today.

The light filtered through the curtains and shined on Kiran’s face. The summoner opened his eyes slowly, his head numb and his eyes hurting. The previous days the order went through quite some toughs battles with the Grand Conquest, leaving everyone exhausted and wanting to use the bar for its stress-relief purposes. Kiran managed to recomposed himself and move his body, slowly rising the sheets as he could and got out of the bed. Still feeling dizzy, Kiran opened the window to let some air in.

His eyes were still not adjusted to the light and he simply kept them close while he left the wind kiss his face. It was quite windy today. Maybe too windy. A echoing rumble made Kiran open his eyes . In the distance a gigantic storm was storming in the horizon,  thunders and dark clouds following, menacingly moving towards them. Kiran eyes spreaded wide open.

“TEMPEST TRAIL!”

The shout was so loud it woke up Anna, still sleeping on the  bed, as she jumped and rolled in the sheets.

“Kiran?! What’s going on?!”

“TEMPEST TRAIL! WE GOT A TEMPEST TRAIL!” shouted Kiran pointing at the tempest in the horizon in panic.

“Tempest trail?!” Anna was fully awake as she processed what it was being said to her.

“A TEMPEST TRAIL! CALL THE OTHERS, WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!” yelled Kiran.

Anna quickly slipped off the bed and dressed up, while Kiran put on his coat and rushed off the room into the hallway.

 

“TEMPEST TRAIL! EVERYBODY UP WE GOT A TEMPEST TRAIL!!” yelled the summoner smashing  a pot with a ladle in order to make as much noise as possible. The heroes slowly poked their head of their rooms while the summoner ran down  the hallways, some more ready than others, like Alfonse starting to put on his armor while Sharena still tried to gather the energies to get off the bed.

Kiran kept banging the pot until he arrived in front of one of the doors of the Echoes hallway.

“COME ON COME ON COME ON, TEMPEEEST TRAAAAILLL.”

Kiran stopped and banged at the door.

“ALM GET YOUR FALCHION OUT OF CELICA AND GET READY WE GOT A TEMPEST TRAIL.”

 

“Ugh, waking up abruptly stresses you skin, you know.” sighed Leon exing out of his room in his pijama. Kiran replied banging the pot and the ladle near the archer's ear.

“TEM-PE-ST TRA-I-AL _LEON_. YOUR BEAUTY SLEEP AIN’T GONNA SAVE YOU IF THE TEMPEST GROWS LARGER.”

Leon grunted but didn’t reply, and went to dress himself.

Other heroes started exiting from their room, trying to get ready, although the sleepiness was still painted on their faces.

“DELTHEA!” Kiran slammed at the door. The young prodigy opened the door with a frown while brushing her teeth.

“Whaaaaaaat?”

“Get the others of your team, you’re the leader today.”

“Oh YEAH!” said joyfully the young mage, raising his fist in the air.

“EVERYONE GET READY!” Kiran bolted out to the next hall, where the fates heroes were in the shared bathrooms washing their faces and teeth. Kiran stopped an half asleep Selena cupping her cheeks with his hand.

“Take care of the weapon distribution.”

“Ughuhuhuh.” grumbled the red-haired mercenary. Kiran nodded and went forward.

“COME ON EVERYONE, WE NEED TO STOP TIME AND SPACE FROM SHREDDING THEMSELVES APART”

Kiran started banging ar another door but it opened soon after the first knock.

“Reinhardt! GET THE-- Oh you’re already dressed.” said Kiran while the mage knight opened the door. He was indeed already dressed and ready to march.  

“ Of course, I’m always ready at this hour.” said Reinhardt adjusting his foulard. The Summoner watched him till he was out of sight.

 _“Always ready at this hour gne gne gne_ fucking prick.”muttered Kiran imitating Reinheardt’s voice.

Meanwhile a long row was forming in front of the men’s bathroom and the first hints of impatience were starting to emerge. “WHO IS TAKING SO LONG?” yelled Leon from the row.

“BET IT’S NARCIAN, HIS HAIR’S ALWAYS A MESS IN THE MORNING.”

“HOW DARE YOU!” said Narcian offended with a towel wrapped around his hair, still wearing his nightgown.

“My hair are a work of beauty, more than what I can say about that lavender wig on your head!” he scoffed.

“To defy your hair a work of beauty it’s an insult to everything I stand for.” interrupted Oliver, his refined sleepwear almost identical to his usual dress. “Lucius gracious here has the best hair out of everyone present.” said Oliver running his fingers through the silk-like hair of the staff user. “Reminds me of a beautiful birdie I once meet.”

“...could you stop doing that.” Lucius wrapped his hair in a towel, making Oliver grumbling, but a quick glare of Raven made him focus on something else. Raven kept brushing his teeth. Another voice rose from the row.

“Hope it’s not Leo who realized to have his collar backwards.”

“...DAMNIT.” said Leo among the row, resulting in burst of laugh of everyone present. The door of the bathroom opened, and the enormous figure of the black knight exited the bathroom, making everyone silent.

“...Apologies for taking so long.” said the knight before leaving.

 

Kiran keep barking orders to get ready as he reached the Blazing hallway. With a loud kick he opened the room of Eliwood, startling him and Nina who were still in the bed.

“TEMPEST TRAILLL! NINA, WITH ME.”

“O-o-ok” said the dragon dancer as she broke the hug with Eliwood and got off the bed. Strangely enough, she was already dressed.

“Shall I come too?” asked Eliwood, still in bed without shirt.

“Nay, defend the castle. I will look out for her Eli, don’t worry.”

Eliwood’s mouth saddened, but he nodded and went to dress himself.

“Why couldn’t he follow us?” asked Ninan.

“He’s still a four star, he would get mauled.”

Ninan lowered her head. “I see.”

“We’ll rise him up sooner or later.” said Kiran patting her back.

As they left the room, Kiran saw Hector peeking inside.

“Hector! Where’s Armands?”

Hector didn’t reply, simply swinged his arm and brough the axe on his shoulder as he smiled. Kiran nodded and was off to another hallway.  

The diner hall quickly filled, heroes munching in silent as they woke up bite after bite.

Others started getting ready while Kiran keep informing everyone of the tempest trail. Camus finished adjusting his sleeves, Legion picked up the mask to wear for today after a rather a heated monologue and Lyn finished securing  her quiver. The armory was starting to get filled with heroes to get their weapons, gathering around Selena who was dispensing them.

“Ok, Ike here’s Ragnell” said Selena launching non ceremoniously the sword. She turned to take another weapon.

“We got a Killer lance.” a bunch of lancers caused a bit of pushing before Selena passed it to Lukas. She kneeled and picked something from a box.

“Who’s got a Brave Bow+?”

“Me!” shouted simultaneously Gordin, Klein and Jeorge. The mercenary frowned and sighed.  

 

Kiran arrived in the awakening Hall and spotted Donnel eating a Carrot.

“Thanks for the pot, potty boy.” said Kiran launching the pot and dunking Donnel’s head. “H-hey!”

Kiran noticed something while seeing Lissa being helped out by Frederick and Nowi to adjust her skirt.

“WHERE IS TIKI?” asked with a bit of panic.

“Probably still asleep.” said Gaius. Kiran stiffed and grabbed Nowi’s arm.

“Nowi. Wake up call.”

“For who?”

“Tiki.”

“Which one?” said playfully the mankanette.

“The one asleep.”

“But they both--”

“NOW, NOWI.”

Nowi transformed and roared in front of Tiki’s door. After a couple of moments, a really sleepy Tiki in pajamas opened the door.

“What...is it?”

“TEMPEST TRAIL” shouted Kiran.

Tiki was unfazed and kept her mouth open and gaze at nothing. Kiran opened his flask and uphold it under Tiki’s nose. After one single sniff she was suddenly fully wake up.

“Dear Mother, Kiran, what’s inside that flask?” asked shocked the Voice.

“Family recipe.” said Kiran. “Come now, the storm awaits.”

 

Once outside the castle, the 5 stars heroes could see in distance the menacing storm. The dark clouds had grown, yet they still spared the spot where the sun was, giving to the atmosphere a quite surreal feeling. Kiran shook hands with Sias, who would now  overseer of the castle with the rest of the heroes while the summoner and the others were away (despite Soren’s protests) and was ready to depart. However a brief look at the groups made him stop.

“Where’s Soleil.” asked Kiran with a odd tone.

Everybody looked confused until a shout from the main hall was heard. Soleil rushed outside followed by Nephenee and the two stood on attention once they get to them.

“Sorry for the wait!” said Soleil. Nephenee just stood in silence, red as a tomato and head low.

Kiran brought his hand to the bridge of his nose and let a loud sigh.

Soleil hadn't realized that her headband was in the wrong place and her hair were messy. But that most of all she was wearing Nephenee’s armor. Backwards. Nephenee tried to compensate and wore Soleil’s armor, but she the color palette stood out like a sore thumb. Nephenee probably tried to warn Soleil about the mistake but the pink-haired gal probably didn’t listen. Soleil looked confused while everyone was staring at them, until after a brief look at Nephenee made her realize the change of armor.

“UH, W-WE DIDN’T--”

“I don’t care.” said Kiran tired and pointed at the storm at the horizon. “Tempest trial.”

The heroes assumed a more serious stance, ready to go

“Alright.”

Kiran pulled out his beloved flask an took a long sip. There was an embarrassed silence while the summoner chugged down the flask content up until he finished and let out a big sigh of relief.

“Let’s go.” said the summoner.

And forward they marched toward the giant storm.


	18. The Hate of a Princess (Veronica)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perspective of a genocadial loli maniac of a drunk alcoholic idiot.

Everything was fine before he arrived. Her plan was going fine. Her men were fine. Her heroes were fine. Then one day things started going wrong. Reports of defeat after defeat after defeat, again and again, one after the other. It felt like one of her bad dreams. She inquires her scouts about the reasons of such defeats while aiming her tome to their throats. Apparently, the Order of Heroes has summoned a tactician, a legendary hero in order to aid them against the invasion. Such hero is capable of summoning other heroes and use them against Embla. She hates that. She sends more men, more heroes to deal with this pesky saviour. None succeeds, not even her precious Xander. The Nohrian prince begs for forgiveness for his failure, but she can’t be mad at him. He remained at her side, but she can blame the legendary hero. The “Summoner”. She ponders if she could capture him. Maybe recruit him. Or kill him. Killing him. Maybe slowly. That sounds nice. She can already imagine him, a legendary figure mentioned in ancient prophecies, capable of best her most trusted hero and able to stole away her generals, begging to be spared. _That sounds really nice._

 

The day where she finally meets him comes. At first she’s confused, all she sees are the petulant royal twins, the scam commander and a white hooded man. Xander points out to her that the white hooded man that seems to be barely able to stand up _is_ the Summoner. _That guy._ He seems drunk. Veronica can already tell she hates him.

 

_“Why the fuck is there a toddler on the battlefield?”_

 

Yup. She hates him. She attacks with her men. She loses. _How?_ She doesn’t understand. A drunken bafoon bested her? Her hate just increases. Days turn in weeks and in months and nothing is fine anymore. The summoner keeps foddling her plans. Keeps stealing her heroes. Keeps calling her _“genocidal crazy-ass brat”_  and mocks her by shaking his rear in front of her.

She hates him.

She hates him so much.

Even when she thinks she has him at her mercy after closing a portal before he could leave, _he still manages to outsmart her_. The servants at the castle try to avoid her as much as possible that day since she turns everyone into a practice target. Xander is getting used to see the princess destroy everything in the room before joining him for the tea. It’s somewhat relaxing drinking while he witnesses her breaking every single accessory. Of course, he will never tell her that since he doesn’t wish to meet the same fate of the lamp she just threw out of the window.

 

The Order grows and the nuisance they are with it. Their ranks increases either by summoning or out right stealing her heroes. She hates to admit it but she needs help. And help comes. She makes an alliance with Muspell, the Kingdom of Fire. Their troops invade Askr alongside the Emblan ones. Their king, Surtr, is apparently invincible and none so far managed to stop him. The Order of Heroes are thrown in utter confusion for the new situation, attacked on two front, one of which is lead by the one profetized to burn the world. The Order must be panicked and in need to find a solution against the king of flames. A perfect opportunity for attacking.

She ambush them with her men, the ghost of a smile on her face as she appears in front of them. She can’t wait to see the Summoner finally in despair. Once surrounded, she can see the royal trio in full defence, sweats running down their faces. And the summoner..

The summoner is drinking again. Relaxed, chilled, not even worried about the fact that he is surrounded.

 

_“YOU Again? Jeez, how many times do I have to teach you this, kid.”_

 

He gives his order and before she knows it, her men are wiped out, explosions all around her. She finds herself on the ground staring at the smoke-filled sky. The Summoner leans to look at her. He is smiling smugly.

 

“ _If ya need an ass whooping, just come to me, lass. Ya know where to find me.”_

 

And off he goes chugging down his bottle.

She hates him.

She hates him so _fucking_ much.


	19. The First Unspoken Rule (Valter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Valter fucks up big time.

_First unspoken rule of The Order:_

**_NEVER TOUCH THE SUMMONER’S BOOZE_ **

 

The moonstone of Grado had enough. Not only he had to endure the humiliation of having been defeated by the enemy and forced to join their ranks through  forced contract, he had to be constantly mocked by the tactician of the Order of heroes at any given chance. The fact that he was stationed to cleaning duty was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Cursing with a disgusted expression on his face, he was moping the ground near the kitchens, as he has done for the past few months, when he noticed an out of place box. Upon inspecting it, he discovered it was filled with bottles. It was strange since as long he could remember, the boxes of liquors were put in the storage room underground and not near the kitchens. Valter sniffed the content and almost recoiled. That unmistakable stench, he could recognize it everywhere: it was the same stench the summoner’s breath had. What did it mean then? Could it be...? Valter smiled slyly. There was no other option. This had to be the personal storage of the summoner disgusting liquors. Now, the real question was...what to make of it? He finally had a change to get his revenge for the summoner’s behaviour. What could he do it to the bottles? Poison them? A good idea, although a quite difficult one since he couldn’t access any kind of poison. Contaminate them? Funny idea, but no, he didn’t want to lower himself that much. Maybe send a message? Yes. Make havok of the box, smash it until everything it’s spilled on the ground. The summoner would probably get furious. Oh, his screams of anger would have been so delightful to hear. Valter raised his mop and hit the box.

 

_SATE MY BLOODLUST!_

 

The next day Valter was getting ready his wyvern for his usual following of Eirika and Ephraim, when a screech so loud made the castle itself shake. Valter smiled as he deduced the summoner must have discovered his little “gift”. The other heroes  seemed in turmoil, some rushing toward the castle to see what all the commotion was about, others instead stayed behind. Valter was mounting on his wyvern when a second screech erupted from the castle, however this was one sounded of pure and utter rage, and was pretty clear at who was aimed at.

 

**“VALTEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR”**

 

He must have found out who the culprit behind is, the moonstone thought to himself. He probably did a poor job at covering his traces. Not like he really cared about it to begin with. No, what he wanted was to see the summoner struggling to contain himself from his anger.  However Valter did not predicted the next scene. Out of the castle, a rabid summoner was rushing outside the castle, foam at his mouth, barely restrained by Black Night and Eiffe. His blood-lusted eyes scouted the outside until he locked contact with the Moonstone of Grado. Valter simply smiled and waved his hand. The summoner completely snapped and freed himself of the two knights. He raised his finger and pointed at him.

 **“INSTANT FIVE STAR PROMOTION TO WHOEVER  BEATS TO A PULP VALTER.”** The summoner shouted at top his lungs. The heroes stood still for a moment, and turned to see Valter as to confirm that indeed, he was the one the summoner wanted beaten up. Valter blinked. This was not what he was expecting.  He then laughed.

“Why don’t you remember Summoner? You said so yourself that while in Arsk none can--”

“ **I MADE IT UP.”** replied the Summoner.

“You can beat people up.  But you won’t die. Granted, with you it will be _all I need._ ” continued the summoner. Valter widened his eyes. He quickly realized the situation he was in. The summoner just put the most precious bounty  of the Order on his head while he was surrounded by countless heroes, most of whom didn’t like him from the very beginning, and now he had just given them the perfect excuse to beat him up. Valter immediately sprouted his wyvern, that rose from the ground, stumbling for a moment as if something was dragging it down before flying into the sky as the first darts, lances and tome blasts were thrown at him. Flying through the sky, Valter quickly realized the the word was spreading fast, since it looked like every 4 star and below hero was rushing outside the castle to take their shot at striking him down. Archers and daggers at every corner aimed and shot from any possible higher point (Takumi took the liberty to use Leo’s shoulders as platform), tome users sniped the flying Wyvern in an attempt to strike it down while brawlers simply chased the action from the ground. Flyer quickly joined in the chase and the entire situation seemed straight out of a battlefield ground.

 

“ **This is a complete disaster.”**  said the gravely the Black Knight.

“...Where is the summoner?” asked Effie looking around. Black knight realized that the summoner was nowhere to be found. He then noticed something under the Valter’s Wyvern.

“ **Godness”** said Black Knight incredulous.

Valter tried to steady his wyvern, but as much as he tried, the flyer seemed to be having troubles balancing itself, as if they were carrying extra weight. Valter noticed then a hand grabbing the wyvern left wing. Kiran poked his head out, unfazed by the fact they were currently flying feets above the ground, keeping his blood-lusted eyes on Valter. The wyvern took notice of the Summoner presence and tried to scare him off screeching at him. All that it got was a punch in the nose, making the wyvern recoil.

“ **SHUT THE FUCK UP.”** yelled the summoner at the reptilian.

 **“NOW.”** the summoner pulled himself up and steadied himself atop of the flying lizard.

“ **YOU.”** he pointed at Valter.

Valter smiled. This was going better than he hoped.

“What are you planning to do Summoner? We are on top of my--” Valter’s dialogue was interrupted by Kiran’s fist, that locked with his nose and jaw.

“ **YOU TOUCHED MY BOOZE.”** said the summoner completely wicked.

Valter was so taken aback that he didn’t manage to defend from the successive punches.

“ **YOU”** he punched his nose

 **“TOUCHED”** he punched his jaw

 **“MY BOOZE”** he swung a left in his ear.

The punches didn’t really hurt that much, but it distracted him long enough for losing control of the wyvern, that plunged down toward the stall. Before it hit the ground, Kiran lost balance and grabbed Valter’s hair to hold onto something. As they fell, Leo tried to slow down their fall by altering gravity, but to no avail. The duo crashed into the stall, tearing it down.

“Oh Naga, I think they’re dead.” said one of the heroes. However from the rubble came out the summoner in less than a minute after the crash, almost unfazed. On his other hand, Kiran held a great chunk of greyish hair. From the rubble emerged also Valter, which however was greeted by Kiran’s laugh. During the crash the summoner teared away accidentally a lot of Valter’s grey hair, which now Kiran referred as the “JUST” style in-between his laughs. Valter felt despair as he touched the top of his head only to feel a bald spot.

“By the way, the bounty is still up.” said arburtly Kiran. Valter turned as saw a group of heroes running towards him, weapons in hand.

“By the way Valter….

_Stay the fuck away from my booze.”_

Kiran walked away as Valter was overwhelmed, and gave a pat to Leo’ shoulder.

“Good job with that spell Leo, woulda have cracked me skull otherwise” said Kiran raising his thumb up. Leo on the other hand sighed.

“I advise you to behave more carefully Summoner. What you did was rather reckless. Weren’t you scared?” asked Leo.

“Laddy it’s hard to get me scared. Trust me on th--”

 **“KIRAAAAAAAAANNNN”** Anna yelled, her eye twitching as she dragged her axe with a wicked smile on her face.

“Oh fuck” the summoner paled.

“ **WHAT DID YOU DO, KIRAAAAAANNN?”** asked furious Anna but still smiling, which actually made her look more terrifying. The summoner gulped.

That day Valter wasn’t the only one recovered into the Nursery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be shy from letting me know what do you think of this drabbles thus far


	20. The Trickster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain redhead tries to bang Kiran

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy. This one is kinda rushed, but I have to keep moving otherwise I'll be stuck here forever.

Kiran was immersed in his own world, coming up with new strategies while studying the war table, layered with all the maps Fjorm and the pegasi knights managed to gathered. The Nilf expedition was taking a tool on him. Being the lack of sleep, lack of resources or worst of all, lack of booze (although self-imposed), the summoner was visibly more tired than usual, and he couldn’t even blame the bottle this time around. He heard the tent  behind him open, a pair of footsteps approaching him, before two slim yet well built arms wrapped around him in a hug from behind. 

“How’s my favourite tactician doing?” said seductively Anna into his ear.

“What are your plotting?” replied unfazed Kiran.

Anna seemed taken aback by this comment. 

“What do you mean, Kiran?”

“You never act so sweet with me if you are not planning something.” Kiran kept studying the map.

“Ooh, Kiran, how cruel of you. What if I told you I just wanted to see you?” said Anna smiling while snuggling his cheek through his hood.

“I knew you would be lying.” 

Anna frowned at that. She decided for a more direct approach. She leaped in an started kissing his neck, whispering in his ear. 

“Aren’t you tired? Maybe I could relieve some stress…”

Kiran seemed hesitant, but he was getting warmed up by Anna’s affection. While still seated, he started hugging Anna, who in the other hand pressed her chest behind his head. He  caressed her exposed arms, her profume filling his nostrils… 

Anna made the bold move and jumped in Kiran’s lap, a lusty smile on her face. The summoner seemed weirded out by this, but his face did not let  it show his concern. Kiran cupped Anna’s chin, moving her head closer to him. 

“Say...Anna…” said Kiran in between breaths.

“Yes…?” Anna’s eyes were filled with desire.

Kiran’s free arm reached for the table.

“Have to ask you something...”

“What is it~~?” asked lustfully Anna.

 

_ CLICK _

 

Breidablik stood firm in Kiran’s grip, aimed at the Commander’s face.

“How’s Sleipnir doing?” 

 

Kiran jumped back and shot with his gun. He never knew what the legendary weapon could do when not summoning heroes, but he had to do something. Anna dodged the shots, which opened little portals from which swings of axes and swords emerged. Anna fell back with a sly smile, unfit for her. 

“My. You’re the second one  I ever met to foil my cover.How did you see through me?” 

Anna asked aa she seemingly melt into a purple fog, revealing a smug Loki, still posing with Anna’s characteristic pose with her finger to her cheek.

“It was the smell. Anna trains always before sleep. She always come back sweaty.” replied Kiran, hand tigh on the gun.

“A detail I’m glad to have not replicated” said Loki disgusted.

“ _ I fucking love it.”  _ Kiran smiled proud.

“Ugh. Should have guessed that even without the drunk part you would still be gross.” Loki frowned.

“What were you planning anyway, you oversized staff grabber?”

“Oooh, just wanted to have some little bit of fun. A little bit of drama in your romantic life would have been the best  to throw you off the edge after Gunnthra’s death. I kinda want to see how far could push it.”

“Careful to not push too much or you may get dragged in.” 

“Is that a treat?”

“Not, it’s a warning. A threat would be “Do not move or my girlfriend will show you how good her training is turning out.”

Loki turned and raised her staff in time to block Anna’s axe, which cut deep into it.

“Hello,  _ faker _ .” said angrily the redhead. 

“Hello, ugly real one.”  said coyly Loki. “I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome.” 

The trickster shifted into smoke and managed to get away from Anna’s grip. The commander placed herself in front of Kiran to protect him. 

“Take it more as a invitation to  _ leave _ . You are literally the last oversized problem I want to deal with.” said Anna. The summoner frowned, uncertain if Anna had just insulted him or not. 

“Such harsh words. And all I wanted was to have some little fun time. This war is stressing me too, you know?”

“Glad to be the cause of it.” said Kiran.

“Do not think to be more than a drunken baffoon, summoner. You may be a pain in the ass but you nothing compare to that manchild of Surtr.”

“Knew it”

“Well if you don’t want more troubles, I suggest you to leave, that is if the idea of having an entire camp of heroes at your throat doesn't sound bad.” 

Loki licked her lips and let out a giggle.“Fufufu, my oh my.  For how alluring that offer is, I am afraid I’ll have to decline. I was tempted to ask you if you two were interested in sharing, but I see I am not welcome here. Oh well, lucky me I have a backup plan…”

“Hey where are you…!”

With a flash of light, Loki was gone, leaving a rather confused Anna to look around the empty tent. Kiran then noticed a strange sparkle to the ground near him. 

 

“Welp, she’s gone. What do you think she’s plotting Kira--”

“ **MOTHERFUCKER** .” Kiran yelled in panic. 

Anna turned and saw Kiran kneeling to the ground in defeat, holding something in his hands.

“THOSE SHOTS COSTS ORBS?! I JUST WASTED 5 ORBS?!” Kiran yelled. Anna’s initial worried stance immediately shifted in one of stale. 

“Kiran, you do realize that if I wasn’t nearby you would have been--”

“THAT IS THE ENTRANCE PAYMENT FOR STARTING A SUMMONING WHEEL! I COULD HAVE TRIED TO SUMMON SIGURD WITH THAT”

“You are not even listening are you.” 

“ **DAMNITTTTTTTTTT** !!” 


	21. The Arrival of Lord Sigurd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Fallen Knight gets his second chance.

The last thing Sigurd heard were the roars of the explosions and the screams of agony.

The last thing he smelled was the smell of burned skin and grass.

The last thing he felt was the flames consuming his body.

The last thing he saw was the battlefield of Belhalla, now turned into a massacre, where most of his companions now laid dead. Even the fierce Arya had fallen, dying standing on her knees, sword still in hand.  The only one left standing was his loyal retainer Arden, now charging with all he had against the wave of flames set by Arvis, ignoring the attacks, just to get close enough to the dastard to kill him. Sadly, just when he was finally close enough, his wounds gave in, and the knight fell right in front of Arvis. Sigurd felt the darkness cover him in its mantle, and even if the flames were still around and on him, he felt cold. And as the light around him disappeared, he thought of his beloved Deidre, and of what cruel sort was waiting for her now. He thought of Seliph, and the weight he was leaving behind on him. He felt shame.  But he had accepted the reality of the situation. He was dead. And now surrounding him was nothing but the darkness and regret. He still had so much to do yet he felt so tired. He couldn’t feel his arms and legs. He felt himself disappear, eaten by the void.

_“HELP!”_

Sigurd froze. Someone was calling for help.

_“HELP US!”_

He was tired. His time was done. He knew that well. But the cry for help was desperate.

_“PLEASE HELP US!”_

He felt the need to answer. Even if he lost his life. Even if he was supposed to be dead. He had to aid them. It was the right thing to do. If he could help in any way, he would have.

Sigurd realized he could open his eyes. His wounds were gone. He lifted himself up and looked around. Utter darkness surrounded the lord, with the only source of light being a little white orb, floating in the air in the distance. Sigurd approached carefully the light, that seemed to notice his presence and floated towards him.

 _“Sigurd of Grannvale.”_ The light spoke with an ethereal voice. It sounded like a man, a woman and a child were speaking at the same time. Sigurd knew he was dead, yet this was utterly unexpected. Was this the afterlife?

“What are you?” asked the knight uneasy.

 _“A messenger, carrying a cry for help to be heard in the darkness.”_ The voice said. _“Seems like you answered.”_

“Do you need help?” said Sigurd. He should be asking a dozen different questions, but the warm light somehow seemed innocent, almost pure.

 _“I’m afraid that’s so. We are facing a great threat, and we need all the help we could muster.”_ The voice spoke sadly. _“Would aid us in this dire time?”_

 Sigurd thought about it. He may have failed in his world, but maybe aiding this one will make up for his mistakes.

“I’ll do whatever I can.” He said solemnly. “I swear it.”

 _“Thank you.”_ Said the voice warmly, as if it was on the verge of crying. _“Thank you truly.”_

The light started shining brighter than before and started expanding, engulfing Sigurd in its light. Sigurd felt the warm light going through his body.  

_“You truly deserve the title of hero.”_

Sigurd was blinded by the light and was forced to close his eyes. When he reopened, he found himself surrounded in darkness yet again, but it was the darkness of the night, as he saw a full moon shining on the ruins surrounding him.  Behind him, he saw an imposing stone with carvings that reassembled a tree. But it was what was in front of him that surprised him. Or better, below him.

A man, dressed in a white robe and hood that covered his face, sat on the ground with an astonished expression on his face as he looked at the knight. Around him, there was a dozen empty bottles. The man looked like had gone through a rough time, with bags under his eyes and the beginning of a 5’o clock shadow beard on his still utterly surprised face.

The two of them stood in silence eyeing each other, Sigurd in confusion, the man in surprise.

“Lord Sigurd.” Kiran finally spoke still surprised.

“Welcome home.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE SIGURD CAME HOME.  
> HOLY SHIT.  
> Also, I can continue this story with Sigurd being the fish out of water shenanigans if you want.


	22. The Arrival of Lord Sigurd II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wOiCTTXbpI  
> And after the serious part one, back to the usual bullshit.

“Home?” 

Sigurd asked, but before he could indulge further, Kiran launched at him in a bear hug, surprising the knight.

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD” Kiran said enthusiastically. He cupped Sigurd cheeks with an expression of disbelief. He stood in silence for a second, studying his facial traits. Then busted out in laughter again.

“IT’S YOU!  IT’S REALLY YOU! SIGURD CAME HOME! SIGURD CAME HOME!” Kiran yelled at the top of his lungs. The knight freed himself from the overly friendly stranger and backed away slowly. While Kiran was jumping up and down the altar with joy, Sigurd stumbled on some empty bottles, making them fall down. The knight kneeled to pick them up and sniffed the bottles. He recoiled as he realized what those bottles were filled with previously.

 _“This man…”_ Sigurd though watching Kiran howling at the moon. _“This man is utterly drunk!”_

Right on cue, Kiran jumped to hug Sigurd again.

“LORDSIGURDIAMSOHAPPYTOFINALLYMEETYOUYOUHAVENOIDEAHOWMUCHIWANTEDTOFINALLYSEEYOUYOU’RELIKEAROCKSTARFORMEANDIWANTEDTOSUMMONYOUSINCEFOREVER” said the Summoner, his tone finally stating how much drunk he was.

“Err, I…I appreciate your enthusiasm, friend.” Sigurd said, gritting his teeth.  “But you don’t look at the best of your conditions.” Sigurd broke the hug and took Kiran by the shoulders, kneeling to see him eye to eye like if he was a child in trouble. “Is there any place where I can leave you? A house or something? I would feel guilty into leaving you in such conditions alone.”

Kiran blinked. Then let out a burp. Sigurd cupped his face with his hand. This might be proven to be more difficult than expected.

“ _*HIC_ * THERE’S THE CASTLE LORD SIGURD! _*HIC*_ YA CAN DROP ME THEEERE.” Kiran mumbled, pointing towards the horizon.

“COME ON, I HAVE TO SHOW YOU—“ started Kiran, but not even two-step and the summoner's legs gave up. The pride knight managed to catch him in time before he could fall down the stairs of the altar. Sigurd carried Kiran by the shoulder down the stone platform, when he met an unexpected yet welcome surprise at the bottom of the stairs. His horse was waiting for him. Sigurd smiled as the horse recognized him, and brushed his head against his blue-haired head.

“Hey, buddy. Nice to see you again.” Sigurd said patting the horse.

Sigurd took a moment to brush his partner's mane, a smiling forming as he remembered how much he and his trusted horse went through ‘till the very end.

_“LORRRRDDDD SIGURRRRD CAME HOOOOOMMEEE”_

The tender moment between Sigurd and his loyal companion was interrupted by Kiran’s incoherent mumbles.

“Right. Come on, friend. Don’t hassle too much now.” Sigurd said while he put Kiran on his horse before mounting himself.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S REAL! SIGURD CAME HOME!” shouted multiple times Kiran while the knight rode into the night on top of his horse.

Despite what Kiran was saying, Sigurd did not recognize the land. This didn’t look like Grannville at all. The fact that it was night sure didn’t help. But he could see a castle on the horizon, so he assumed it must have been the one his new drunken acquaintance was referring to. The castle was rather big, with high walls defending it and a strategic location near a cliff. The architecture was unknown to him, yet strangely familiar.  At the castle’s door, Sigurd was halted by an arrow that startled his horse. He noticed an archer and a mage on top of the wall, looking down at him with their weapons ready.

“ALT! Who goes there?” asked the archer with his strange accent.  Despite the cold welcome, Sigurd didn’t feel the need to lie. For all he knew, he could have just dropped the man to the castle and then be on his way to try and figure out what was going on.

“I am Lord Sigurd, heir to the duchy of Chalphy. I have with me a man in poor conditions that led me here.”

“A man in poor conditions?”

“I think he passed out.” Said Sigurd, turning to check on Kiran. The summoner was indeed asleep. "He may be had one too many drinks." 

“Is the man wearing a white robe?”

“Yes.”

“Is he smelling like alcohol and wyvern’s breath?”

“Uhh, yes.”

“KIRAN FOR THE LOVE OF—“ the archer yelled.  “Raight, go fetch Anna, would you.” He said recomposing himself.

“Going.” Said the small mage.

The doors of the castle opened, and Sigurd entered the garden inside the walls. The arched climbed down and bowed, introducing himself as Virion, simple archer of the Shepherds from the world of Awakening.

Sigurd had no idea what was more weird of the man, the way he moved and talked or the things he was speaking. Nevertheless, he didn’t inquire. He noticed a woman exiting the castle with the mage of before. The redhead was wearing a white robe loosened with a skirt and a pair of boots, probably her improvised attire since she was most likely sleeping.  Her rather frustrated and tired face was also a clue.

“What is it this ti….me.” Anna started before looking up to see Sigurd. The knight was met yet again with a look of astonishment. What was going on in this place?

“L-Lord Sigurd! What a pleasure to finally have you here! Y-you may have to excuse me” Anna blushed and punched Raigh in the head. “I wasn’t TOLD that we were receiving a new hero!”

Sigurd was confused more than ever. Why did everyone know about him? And did she just referred to him as a hero?

“Hero? M’am, I’m afraid I don’t follow you. As flattering as it is, I do not deserve such a title. All I am doing is simply escorting this man back to the castle where he told me to bring him back.” Said Sigurd gesturing towards the drunken summoner behind him.

“Man?” Anna peeked beyond Sigurd, to see Kiran completely passed out.

“Oh no, Lord Sigurd, do not fret, that is not a man you are carrying, but the human form of a barrel of beer.” Said Anna smiling. “However.” Anna punched Raigh in the head again. “That was also ANOTHER thing it was not TOLD  to me.”

“I’m sorry okay?!” said Raigh.

“Whatever, go fetch Lachesis. And TELL her we have a case of Drunken Kiran. I’ll say…” Anna turned to give Kiran another look “A Stage 2” Said Anna. The young mage walked away, still brushing the bump on his head.

“Lachesis?” Sigurd lifted up upon hearing that name. “Lachesis of Nordion? She’s here?” Sigurd asked.

“Indeed. Lord Sigurd, I know this doesn’t make sense right now, but trust me, it will once I’ll explain.”

Sigurd’s mind was rushing with questions. Why was Lachesis here? Did she survived the battle? Does it mean others might have survived?  Could it be that—Sigurd’s rush of thoughts came to an alt upon seeing her old friend.  Lachesis arrived, with another girl with long blonde hair – _no, not a woman. That’s a man_ \- a voice said from the back of his mind. Lachesis stopped on her track when she saw Sigurd.

“Lord Sigurd…” she said, covering her mouth. “Glad to see you again.” She said, smiling.

\---------

“I see.” Sigurd said.

Anna and Lachesis just finished explaining what was going on in Arsk and what kind of threat they were facing. Near them, laid on the bed, the summoner was recovering from what was one of his worst hangovers he ever had during his period at Arsk.

“So Arsk is trying to fight off the Muspell kingdom that threatens to burn everything to ashes, while also fighting the Emblian empire to stop them from enslaving these “heroes” from different worlds?”

“Exactly.” Said Anna.  

“The situation is dire, we need all the help we can.” Said Lachesis.

Sigurd pondered the situation. Muspell wanted to realize a prophecy of burning the entire world. Thing that Sigurd could tell for personal experience wasn’t very pleasant. And Embla wanted to enslave basically the strongest warriors of all times for their selfish goals. The picture was pretty clear now. And so what it needed to be done.

“I’ll do whatever I can.” Said Sigurd. Lachesis and Anna smiled warmly.

The door of the nursery opened and entered two people. One was a young man with blue hair, wearing a golden armour. The girl with him wore the same type of armour, but had blonde hair.

“Lord Sigurd. It's a pleasure to meet you. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m prince Alfonse, heir prince to the Arsk kingdom. This one here is my sister, Sharena. We are---“

“WE ARE SO EXCITED TO FINALLY MEET YOU!” chipped Sharena, jumping on her feet. Sigurd involuntary cringed, the girl’s enthusiasm reminded him of the quite awkward first encounter he had upon arriving here.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, but really, I feel it’s unnecessary.” He shrugged it off.

“The fact is, the summoner wanted you to aid us for months. Your arrival was met with anticipation for a while now.” There is that mysterious individual being mentioned again. This Summoner was apparently the Legendary hero that managed to turn the situation into Arsk’s favour during the war, and the only one able to summon heroes from others worlds. Sigurd could already picture this fierce leader. And wondered if he could perharps…no, no time to think of that. 

“I see. Well, I’ll meet up with the summoner as soon as possible and see how I can help.” Said Sigurd as he stood up. “So, where can I find him?”  

A moment of silence fell in the room. Anna cursed herself. She never actually called Kiran by name during her explaination.

“You…you already met the summoner, lord Sigurd.” Said Alfonse gesturing towards the druken man now sleeping in the bed. “Kiran..Kiran is—“

“Kiran is the summoner.” Said Sharena.

Sigurd’s eyes widened as he looked at the drunk man laying in the bed. Right on cue, Kiran woke up screaming, startling everyone.

 _“NEVER JUMP INTO THE RED HELL!”_ Kiran spouted. He realized he was awake, and turned to see the gaze of the little group at his left. He also recognized Sigurd and remembered he summoned him.

 “Oh hi guys. Hello again, Lord Sigurd.” Said Kiran smiling, waving his hand. His smile quickly disappeared as he took a bucket near the bed and puked.

Sigurd had experienced death and rebirth and was just send into a new world, and yet, the fact that the man currently vomiting his guts was supposed to be the tactician of the army and a supposed “legendary hero” was by far the hardest thing he could comprehend.

“..Is that so.” Stated Sigurd.

The others looked away, kinda embarrassed.

“Usually he’s in better shape.” Said Alfonse.

“Usually.” Repeated Lachesis with a bit of sarcasm.

Kiran managed to recover, and taking a deep breath, finally spoke something different than guttural noises.

“I feel strange. My head feels light and I can hear a coherent voice in my head.”

“It’s called being sober.” Said Anna, her arms crossed.

“Eh, not a fan.” Said Kiran. He realized Sigurd was still there. He blushed, scratching his neck.

“Well, sorry for the poor show, Lord Sigurd. I was kinda getting desperate in trying to summon you, so I decided to just camp around the summoning stone until I summoned you.”

"Wait, what happened to the others you summoned?" asked Sharena.

"Send them home." replied quickly Kiran.

“I…see.” Sigurd said, not understanding.

“I will be more than glad to show you the place around, but my current condition is kinda precatious now, so I’ll leave the job to Lachesis, since I know you have confidence with her.” Stated Kiran. Lachesis cleared her throat.

“Oh. If she wants, of course.” Kiran corrected himself.

“I will be more than glad.” Said Lachesis smiling. “Lucius, watch over our stubborn summoner in the meanwhile, ok?” she said addressing the other healer.

“Of course.” Said Lucius gripping Kiran’ shoulder while smiling, making Kiran gulp.

“Come Sigurd, I’ll show you around.” said Lachesis, waving her hand as she opened the nursery's door.

 “I…Of course.” Said Sigurd confused.

“Do not worry, Lord Sigurd. I’ll come to you as soon I recover—“ Kiran felt the grip of Lucius tightened around his shoulder.

“You’ll need a lot to recover from this one, summoner. First of all: No alcohol.” Said Lucius smiling.

Lachesis and Sigurd left the room. But the Arsk trio remained inside the nursery, eyeing Kiran. The summoner however, seemed unaware of their stares.

“We got Sigurd! Can you believe that?” said Kiran pulling out his beloved flask, which was however immediately confiscated by Lucius. Kiran, however, didn’t seem to mind it for once.

“Kiran.”

“I can’t believe it, after all this time..” Kiran pulled out another flask, which was confiscated again by Lucius.

“KIRAN!”

“What?” asked the summoner as he pulled out his emergency bottle, which, again, was taken away by Lucius.

“What about Arvis?” said Anna, leaning against the wall.  

“Arvis? What about Arv--HOLY SHIT ARVIS!!” Kiran threw in the air another bottle hidden in his coat, which was thankfully saved last minute by Lucius’ reflexes.

\-----

Lachesis was guiding Sigurd down the hallway, where the bathrooms were. Since they didn’t discuss with the commander where he would rest for the night, Lachesis decided to make a quick detour to the bathroom before heading back to the nursery to discuss about where Sigurd could spend the night . From their talk, Sigurd learned what the princess did after the betrayal of Arvis, and also learned that Eldigan was summoned here. The though of meeting his old friend again filled Sigurd with joy. But their talk was interrupted when Sigurd saw a familiar figure in the distance.

“It can’t be…” Sigurd muttered.

Lachesis looked at the end of the corridor and paled. Of all the moments, of all the places, he had to be there.  His curly long red hair burning against his pale skin and dark clothes. Sigurd recognized the man standing on the other side of the corridor. Arvis. He was talking with someone strangely similar to him. But Sigurd didn’t care. Rage took over him. Lachesis tried to put herself in front of him, trying to calm him down, but to no avail.

“ARVIS!” yelled Sigurd.

The emperor turned. His slight smile quickly turned in a frown. Then a grin.

“The traitor! Finally, you show up! That drunk fool always said that you would show up sooner or later.” He said pulling out his tome.  The man at his side tried to calm him down.

“Father please, there is no reason! If the summoner—“  started Saias.

“ENOUGH SAIAS! COME TRAITOR! LET US RECREATE YOUR DEMISE, SHALL WE! ” said Arvis smiling.

“ARVIS!” Sigurd yelled with rage and charged as Arvis started chanting.

However, before as Sigurd attacked with the point of his sword and Arvis fired the first wall of flames, a third opponement entered the fight. Or more like, stumbled upon. Right before the two adversaries could hit eachother, the door of the bathroom opened and a massive knight in black armor with a red scarf exited. How did he managed to fit in is beyond everyone’s knowledge.  Sigurd’s sword clashed against the Knight armour, causing sparkles. Sigurd didn’t have time to realize the massive presence standing before him that he backed away from the incoming wall of flames. The fire engulfed the massive armoured knight, who however didn’t flinch. Arvis seemed distraught for the happening.  Lachesis and Saias rushed to the scene, only to find the massive jet-black armored knight standing still as the flames died out. The Black Knight stood still, and slowly turned his head to see who just attacked him.

\-----------

“I’m sure we’ll find a solution.” Said Kiran.

“You have any ideas? These two are basically sworn enemies. It’s like if you had to fight alongside Veronica.” Said Anna.

“UGH. As if I would ever want to stand near that brat.” Said Kiran trying to drink from a little flask. Lucius caught him and offered him instead a glass of water. The summoner drinked it with a frown.

The nursery doors opened, revealing the Black Knight carrying two people unconscious under his arms.

“I caught these two bickering in the hallway. I suggest you to have a talk with them.” Said Black Knight. Kiran spitted the water, showering Lucius. Anna gave Kiran a “I-told-you” stare.  As the staff user cleaned himself up, holding back curses, Kiran managed to recompose himself.

“I see. Thanks, BK. You can drop them there.” Said Kiran gesturing towards the bed.

The knight dropped the two unconscious fighters in the nearby bed and left. Lachesis and Saias entered soon after.

“I tried to stop them!” said Lachesis.

“He wouldn’t listen to reason!” said Saias.

“It’s ok guys.” Said Kiran. “I’ll handle it.”

This was gonna be a long night.

\----

The first light of the morning shined on the land of Arsk. The yellow-orange light poured in Kiran’s room. In front of his desk were standing Arvis and Sigurd, both patched up from the beating. Kiran was sat on the other side of the desk, bucket in hand. Between both three, today had been indeed a shitty night.

“I can’t expect you to forgive eachother.” Started Kiran.

“No.”

“Absolutely no.”

“I can’t even expect you to tolerate each other either.” Kiran continued.

“No.”

“Absolutely no.”

Kiran looked at the clock. It was almost 7 am. Around this time Feh usually brough him news about upcoming events. He hoped for a miracle, because as far as he knew it, there was no way these two would have stayed in the same castle without killing each other.

Feh entered the room, dropping a pack of letters.

“Summoner, I understand you are fighting a war and you need all the help possible, but working with such a dastard—“

“Watch your tongue, traitor! I didn’t attack you yet again out of respect for the order! Of which, by the way, I’ve been an essential member since I joined.” Said Arvis smirking.

“He’s right.” Said the Summoner, looking at the letters. Arvis grinned. “Doesn’t mean he’s not an asshole tho.” Continued Kiran. Arvis frowned.

“Anyway, I think I found a possible solution to resolve your…dispute.” Said Kiran holding a letter.

The two men looked at him surprised.

“There’s a tradition, of sorts, among summoners.” Said Kiran. “To resolve arguments between heroes…"

"A **Gauntlet** …you could say.” Kiran smiled.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is basically a paralogue in which Kiran goes to the Gauntlet arena. I won't write the actual fight of Sigurd vs Arvis as much as I'll use it as the background event.


	23. The Arrival of Lord Sigurd III: The Voting gautlet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been a pain in the ass and the quicker I get it off the better :P

It was the gauntling vote day between Sigurd and Arvis, and the royal trio, plus Fjorm, decided to follow Kiran for once to the Voting Gauntlet arena. The summoner didn’t look excited of the idea, but didn’t comply. The one who complied was Oliver, rappresentative (for reasons clear only to Kiran) of the Order. It was of common use for the summoners to bring with them their head-leaders for this type of events. Usually Kiran brought with him Oliver, but this time the Protector of beauty was being ditched for the Prince of Arsk. Oliver stopped complaining only when Kiran promised him to summon Heron whenever possible. With a loud sight for having fixed the situation, Kiran turned to the group.

“Everybody ready?”

“I am more than ready! AWW Kiran, this is the first time we get to see the Voting Arena! And we get to meet summoners from other worlds!” Sharena was barely able to contain herself, jumping up and down around his more self-restrained brother. Fjorm simply stared confused at the princess. Kiran scoffed and brushed the back of his neck.

“Yyyyeeeahh about that. I feel like I have to warn you about one thing. Since in the voting arena there are mostly people from my world, we kinda behave like if it was like in our world. So I warn you to be prepared for a rather chaotic scenario.“ Kiran said.

“How much chaotic?” inquired Alfonse, raising an eyebrow.

“Remember the time I got drunk with Mae, Shiro and Soleil?” said neutral the summoner.

“The one  time with the lamp _or_ the wyvern painted in red?”

“The wyvern. But like, add 100 more people in it shouting.”

Alfonse shivered.

“Well now, I hope I prepared you enough. Lord Sigurd and Arvis are already there.”

Kiran pointed the legendary weapon towards the sky.

“GIDDY UP!”

Nothing happened.

“Ehrrr...GIDDY UP!”

Silence. Kiran marched towards the contacts stone and kicked it a bunch of time, muttering curses. Like an old car, the Stone seemed to activate and brief buffs of white smoke erupted. Kiran quickly fell back to his group and pointed Breidablik to the sky.

“Just fucking go.” A circle of white smoke and feathers surrounded them, and the group was engulfed in white light.

The group found themself in front of the main building of the Voting Arena. Giant statues waving blue flags surrounded the sides of the long red cape that led to the arena. Yet the royals had their eyes stuck on the scene in front of them.

There were at least hundreds of different summoners in shape and size, talking in small  groups. The age gap was very wide, with people who seemed to be less than 14 years-old and others clearly adults.The adults were discussing in circles, gathering under the shadows of the giants statues, while the younger ones seemed to chase around each other. Another thing the trio noticed, was that they were not the only group arriving, as there were countless popping up behind and in front of them.

“So these people come from your world as well, Kiran?”

“As far as I know.”

“Incredible.”

“Pffft. You ain’t even seen the main arena yet.”

Alfonse looked confused, but as they walked on the red carpet towards the Arena, it was clear that this was a mere inch of all the people present.

As soon as the doors opened, a roar of yells, screams and everything else invested the group. Despite the fact that the arena was large, _very large_ , it was filled with an enormous amount of summoners. Most of them were glued to the strange giant glowing box displaying the portraits of Sigurd and Arvis alongside the numbers of who was winning and who was losing. Chants for both the heroes echoed in the arena. Passion wasn’t lacking at least.

“100 HUNDRED ON SIGURD!”

“200 ON ARVIS”

A bunch of  Annas were standing above the crowd of Summoner, taking the bets and yelling the numbers to be added.

“One hundred for Sigurd, two hundred for Arvis!”

“Annas are the ones that handle all the votes?” asked Sharena.

“To be honest, Annas are probably the more fitting persons for this job" Kiran could perceive Anna's smug smile from nehind him.  Apparently her family tree managed to reach even the multiple dimensions.

"Let’s have a look around, maybe I can found someone I know.”

The group started walking as a rather confused Fjorm asked why there were multiple commanders Anna in this place.

Strolling around, Kiran suddenly lifted his head and waved, trying to catch the attention of a group of summoners.

“Hey ya monglers!” said Kiran walking towards them.

“ _Oh great, it’s the drunktard.”_

_“Maybe if we ignore him he will think he mistook us”_

_“Shit, he’s coming this way, act normal.”_

 “So whats up?”

The group of summoners were posing in a very uncommon way.

“Not much really. I kinda want to punch IS for  starting the voting gautlet while there is still the tempest going on.” said one of the hooded men. Alfose could swear they all looked identical yet not the same.

“What, didn't you handle it already?”

“Lack of stamina potions.”

“Dang.”

“I managed thanks to my precious Seth.” said one of the hooded figures, with a female voice.

“ Didn’t you bring him +10? How much are you investing into that dude.”

“EVERYTHING NECESSARY.” replied sharply the female summoner. Kiran looked around, looking for someone.

“Yo where is Eragon?” asked Kiran

“Fractured Pelvis after trying to bang all 5 lyns.”

“How did---”

“At once.”

“Ah. That explains it”

That _casanova_. Kiran noticed a familiar summoner sitting depressed on the ground nearby.

“So what’s up with Tim?”

“He thought it was a good idea romancing Eitika before recruiting Validar.”

“Ouch. Well come on Tim, what did you expected?”

 _“Fuck oooooooff”_ replied Tim, bringing his hood further down his face to hide in shame. 

A voice yelled in the distance.

“SIGURD IS LOSING, BONUS POINTS X6 FOR THE NEXT 6 MINUTES!”

As if the gates of hell were opened, the summoners rushed away to invest more flags on the losing part in order to gain the maximum profit. Kiran found himself alone with his group of heroes.

“So, these are summoners from different worlds of Zenit that all come from your world.” asked curious Alfonse. 

“Pretty much.” said Kiran. A summoner flew above their head, her wings wide as she plew the air.

“Except that. Yeah, we ain’t have that.” pointed out Kiran.

“Shall we go and see how Lord Sigurd and Arvis are fairing?” asked Fjorm, still confused on why there were different Anna's running around. Could it be a trick of Loki?

\-----

The fight had been tough. By the end of it, Sigurd’s clothes were burned off in various parts. Cuts and bruises burned as his sweat covered them. But it was done. Arvis was on the ground, point of the sword on his throat, heavily breathing, defeated.

“Say it.” said Sigurd.

“.....I surrender.” admitted Arvis with a loud sigh. The battle was over. Sigurd had won.  The crowd cheered as Anna gave the announcement. “And Lord Sigurd is the winner of this round. Congratulations!”

Sigurd looked around, smiling as he saw the crowd cheered for him. He smiled. Maybe this really was his second chance to make things right.

“And now for Round 2, Sigurd will fight the winner of the other match!”

_Wait what_

A giant shadow appeared behind Sigurd. The knight turned to see a menacing tall man dressed in red, his gaze contorted in a evil frown, and a lance tall almost as the knight in his hand.

“Greetings. I am Hardin, Emperor of Archanea.” thundered the man with his heavy voice. Sigurd gulped.

\----

Inside the nursery, Kiran was sitting on a chair close to Sigurd’s bed as an awkward silence infested the room.

“Well, at least you put up a good fight.” said Kiran. Sigurd looked at Kiran unconvinced, his broken arm and leg were not really in favour of this argument.

“Shut up, will you.” said Arvis on the bed on opposite side, the casts of his legs up in the air.

“This is why I had to put you down. Even if you defeated me, there would always have been something greater that you would not have been able to handle while I instea---AAACCK!!” Arvis shouted as Kiran patted his casts sighting, causing Arvis to shout curses at him.

“No reason to get upset over this.  After all, it was a simple competition. I have to assume you two will cooperate in the the future for now on, yes?” asked Kiran. A brief silence fell. Sigurd and Arvis looked at each other.

“I believe it’s in our interest we try our best.” said Arvis.

“I agree.” said Sigurd.

“Good! Now that that’s settled, I’m gonna let your kids visit you.”

“What?” said simultaneously the two men.

“Oh, Seliph and Julius, they are both here waiting for you just---”  the nursery door broke down as Seliph and Julius were in the middle of a collutation, rolling on the ground as one tried to overcome the other, shouting at yelling at eachother's face. 

“….outside.”

A strange silence fell as the three men watched the two teenagers fight off right in front of them. 

“GET HIM JULIUS!” Arvis shouted from the bed.

Kiran sighted. He made a mental note to bring Black Knight with him next time. 


	24. The punishment (Odin, Lazslow, Selena, Legion)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiran had an idea. A wonderfull idea. A nasty idea. Yes, Kiran had a wonderfull, nasty idea!

The heroes summoned at Arsk were considered all of vital importance for the course of the war. Some heroes however, were  considered more important than others. And for every Sigurd, Lyn or Ike, there was a Barst, Bartr or Arthur. 

Odin, Severa and Lazlow, for a lack of better words, were the  _ misfits _ club. In the hands of a more patient or reliable summoner, they could become quite the fearful units. In the hands of  _ this _ Summoner? Not so much. 

 

“I have come to a realization.” said Kiran sat on his desk, legs on the table. The trio had been summoned in Kiran’s room for a “tactical meeting”, which made them quite nervous since every decision Kiran made outside the battlefield was questionable at best and downright fearful at worst. They sat at the edge of their seat, worried for what the summoner was plotting. 

“Your team lacks a green unit.” That...was surprisingly a fair point. With Lazlow and Severa being sword users and Odin a blue mage, the team often lacked a proper green member. “Lucky for you I have an idea.” Kiran clapped his hands. “SAIZO!” 

“Yes?” asked the ninja appearing right behind Lazlow’s shoulder, making him jump from his seat and startling the other two. 

“Fetch me Legion.” said Kiran.

“...as you wish.” 

The ninja disappeared while Severa turned to question the summoner. 

“Who is Legion?” 

Right on cue, the door broke down and a giant entered the room, his horned mask revealing only two green eyes. 

“ **We are Legion! ...and we are Legion too! UWE HEE HEE”**

Kiran sighted “This is the third door this week. Inhaling sharply, he recomposed. “This is Legion. He likes to kill. Have fun.” said Kiran dismissing them. 

 

\----

One week later

\----

The studio of the summoner was silent. Kiran had his hand on the bridge of his nose. The group of 4 did not talk. Not even Legion. Kiran pulled a bottle of liquor out his desk and filled a glass. 

“Ok.” he sighted. “Tell me what happened.”

“It happened.” replied sharply Severa. 

“You managed to destroy the wyvern stall.” commented Kiran. 

“Do you have any idea how many people want your heads right now? And how _little_ _few of them_ I can stop from doing so?” 

Kiran shrugged remembering the sheer fury of Camilla and Cherce’s faces. A sight that will torment him for the nights to come. 

“We were training okay?” Severa spoke up. 

“Then Odin is like “Blah blah blah, let’s admire the dark mothers who breath fire” and I am “absolutely no” while instead Legion is all for it,  so me and Inigo keep training okay, we stay for our own business while Odin and Legion go inside the wyvern stall and then 5 minutes later the entire place is on fire and wyverns are flying around all over the place.”

“ _ I noticed”  _ said sarcastically Kiran. One of the wyvern had decided that the best place to set a new nest was the summoner’s room. Although the maids cleaned up, there were still traces of the wyvern passage. That and the odor. Oh, and the broken wall. And the fact that the Wyvern was still there, trapped inside the room. Luckily it was sleeping now. 

The summoner addressed Legion. 

“Is that true Legion, is this how it went?” 

“Well, Summoner, you see--” Odin started. 

Kiran pointed Breidablik at the mage.

“I don’t have time for your bullshit Owain, shut the fuck up.” said Kiran annoyed. Odin obeid upon hearing his real name. Legion however wasn’t as much tense. 

“ **We wanted to see the dragonses yes.**

**Fire breathing dragonses yes. Chest-bare Odin says we should see dragonses for funsies yes.  Moment we stepped in, we probably did somenthingses wrong. Every dragon starts yelling at us. Screches loud, hurts our ears.  Then they started spitting fire. We try to subdue fireses but dragonses keep firing. Eh Eh. Firing. We did big bad yes yes.”** Legion nodded.  

“Now you.” Kiran pointed to Owain. 

“What happened.”

“Well, you see summoner, we were just--”

Kiran clicked Breidablik, still pointed at Owain. 

The mage gulped. 

“O-ok. You see, I wanted to ride a wyvern, so we entered the stall, but I forgot that it was sleep time, so we basically woke up a bunch of angered wyvern that spat fire at us. So we tried to mitigate the flames by throwing the water of the buckets, and I didn’t remember at the time that Wyvern’s water is corrected with oil to help them spit fire, so we basically ignited the fire even more than before. The wyverns went hysterical and some flew crashing the roof. I tried to calm them down opening the cages, but they just flew away in panic crushing in each other. And that’s it.”

Kiran appeared more defeated than before. 

“ Wanted to  _ Ride a Wyvern. _ Why do I even try.” 

The summoner took a long shoot from his glass. 

“SAIZO!” Kiran shouted. 

“Yes, Summoner?” asked Saizo out of nowhere, scaring Inigo and making him fall off his chair. 

“Bring Camilla in.” 

“Going.” said the ninja disappearing. 

“HOW DOES HE DO THAT?!” asked livid Inigo. 

“Way of the Ninja I guess.” The was a lock on the door and  Princess Camilla entered the room. Her posture was the usual, but there was a threatening aura coming off from her. Severa cringed. She saw her lady emanating that aura only a couple of time and it  _ never  _  was a good sign. 

“Have you called me?” asked Camilla. 

“Yup. Owa-- Odin did it. You see  _ he wanted to ride a wyvern.”  _ said Kiran. 

Camilla’s serious expression changed suddenly and looked at Odin before giggling. 

“Oh, is that so?” she said with a cryptid sultry tone. 

“Yup. You can imagine what you have to do. It’s all yours, Camm.” said Kiran. 

“Wait. What’s going on.” Owain  confused asked as Camilla took him by the ear.

“Naughty Naughty, I’ll teach you some manners.” said Camilla as she dragged away Odin. Kiran ignored the increasing number of questions spouted by Owain to focus on Legion. 

“Legion, you’ll help rebuild the Wyvern stall and will do the dishes for 4 months.” said severe Kiran.

“ **We understand, yes yes.”** said Legion with his head lowered like a scolded child. 

“Very well, You can go now.” Kiran dismissed. 

Legion stood up and walked out of the room with his head down and heavy steps

The room now was quiet. Severa and Inigo looked  at each other, worried about why they were still there.  

“Take a sip.” gestured Kiran at the two glasses in front of them. As the two drinked, Kiran dropped the bomb. 

“So how’s your sex life, Inigo?”

The swordsman spat his drink and Severa almost choked. Breathing heavily, Inigo looked up at the Summoner. 

“Www-Why do you ask?” he stammered red in the face. 

“Because Donnel apparently heard a voice calling out your name in a rather... peculiar way around the same time Owain and Legion did the misphat. And, curious thing, you two were not around to stop them from worsening the situation. Also apparently lately a lot of heroes heard strange noises around the castle. Misunderstandable noises. Near yours rooms.” 

Laslow and Selena looked at each other, both of them sweating. 

“I am not angry. It’s normal for a young couple.So I am gonna give you some time off to spend together!” said Kiran smiling. Severa’s  eyes light up. “Really?!” she said joyously, only to fake a frown in order to not sound too happy about it.

“Oooh, really.” said the summoner menacing. The two sword fighters didn’t notice the menacing presence of the black knight until it was too late, and the jet-black general had gripped firmly their shoulders. 

“You since you two seemed to be so lustful that it compromises your duty, I elaborated a solution. You two need to dry out your necessities, that’s why you’ll stay in the isolation room! For the next fifteen days.” sentenced Kiran.

“W-what!” Inigo yelled, but he could feel himself already getting drag away by the black knight. A brief look at Severa confirmed that she too was in the same situation. Kiran waved with his hand.

“Have fun.”

Severa started shouting profanities as she was led outside , waking up the Wyvern in the process. Kiran wondered if the lizard had a name. 

  
  


\---

Cherche and Princess Minerva were walking down the corridor towards Camilla’s room, their anger so perceivable in the air that  even Niles knew it wasn't a good idea teasing them at the moment. 

“Are you sure the summoner said the responsible was in Camilla’s room?” asked Minerva. 

“He said so. He said we are free to inflict upon him whatever punishment we see fit.” said Cherche. 

“Good to know.”

“Although he remarked  _ if you don’t pity him. _ ”

“That’s strange. What does it mean?”

The door of Camilla’s room opened, and a tired, sweaty, suck dry Odin crawled out. The two wyvern riders could see only his naked chest covered in kiss and whip marks. The mage turned to look at them, his eyes half closed, bags under his eyes and his cheeks cave. 

“..h..help” he muttered extending his arm towards them. 

A hand reached and grabbed him by the wrist. “Come on now, we have just began~”

said Camilla as she dragged inside Odin and closed the door. 

The two wyvern riders did a 180° turn and walked away, red in face. 

“Thinking about it, I think one punishment will be enough.” said Minerva. 

“I aggre!” said Cherche. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk why I wrote this, hope yiy enjoyed it


	25. The Drunkass and the Brat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiran summons the last hero he expected

Kiran was, at least in theory, a brilliant tactician. He was used to face hard choices. But as the sun kept rising up in the air, a dreadful sensation of oppression started weighing on him. It could have been many things. Maybe the heat of the dying summer, or maybe the various activity that were waiting for him at the castle once this was done. 

 

“Kiran? Could you...decide a little faster?” 

 

Or maybe was the gaze of everyone of the order staring at him while he looked dumbfounded the summoning circle. This was no common summoning session however.  By pulling from this ring, Kiran would have brought to Zenit a new Brave hero to join the forces of the order. And since Brave Lyn and Brave Ike were some of the most powerful units in the army, Kiran found himself struggling to choose the next brave hero. Somehow he knew green or blue would have not been his favourite pick. But he really couldn't choose between red and grey. 

“Kiran, get a move on, you’ve been staring at that stone for 20 minutes now.” commented Anna, frustration seeping through her words. Kiran knew he had to make a choice, poor Wrys was on the verge on passing out for the heat and the other elder members weren’t far behind. After careful pondering, Kiran knew what he had to do. The summoner raised a finger, making the members of the order widened their eyes to see which Kiran would  choose. 

Kiran pointed his finger to the red orb. Then the grey one. Then the red orb again….and then again the grey one. 

“Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..” chanted Kiran shifting his finger  from one orb to the other as he sang. A punch in the head from Anna stopped him from reciting further. 

“Stop wasting time.” said Anna gritting her teeth. With the form of the commander's knuckles still impressed on him, the summoner really wished he  had informed himself about the heroes of this banner. 

“Guess I’ll take the red one.” said Kiran raising Breidablik.Then the oddest thing happened. Kiran’s legs, having been sitting crossed for almost half a hour and suddenly back up, gave out, making the summoner fall flat on his face while he shot with breidablik the grey orb instead of the red one. Kiran raised his head as smoked erupted from the stone and a circle of light summoned….Princess Veronica of Embla. Silence fell as the princess looked around and noticed the summoner on the ground at her feet. The two locked eyes and stared at each other in silence. For approximately one second. 

“ **OH COME ON** ” Kiran yelled shocked. Veronica? Of all people? 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” he snapped, still confused.

“I  merely answered your call.” said soft spoken Veronica. 

“I AIN’T ORDER ANY GENOCIDAL PRINCESS!” 

“I am not the same Veronica you’ve come to know, Summoner.”

“DAMN RIGHT YOU ARE NOT, YOU GOT A STICK AND NOT THAT FOCKING TOME, THAT MEANS I CAN PROPERLY KICK YOUR ASS.”

“Please, don’t---” 

Kiran rose up and charged at her, but his legs betrayed him once again and he fell down, this time flat on his face, and passed out. Everyone stared at the unconscious summoner dumbfounded. 

“Do you intent of leaving him laid down here?” inquired Veronica. 

\----

The nursery was silent except for the ticking clock.  Kiran was laid down in bed with a bag of ice and a heavy frown. On the other side was sat Veronica, her cryptic neutral face making impossible to say if she was sad, angry, a combination of both, or judgy. 

“Well this is a situation.” spoke Kiran.  “Of all people, you had to show up.” 

“All I did was answer your call. I was just as surprised seeing you...after all this time.” 

“What are you talking about I literally kicked your ass 2 weeks ago.” 

“I am not the same Veronica of this world, Summoner. I’m different.” 

“Yeah I can see that, you have the incredible height difference of 3 inches.”

“...I forgot that you were charming as a sack of peeled off potatoes.” 

“And I never knew you expressed some other kind of emotion that wasn’t apathy or genocidal tendencies.” 

“I used to be like that, yes. But as I told you, I’m different from the Veronica you know.”

“And so you would help me fight even yourself?”

“Yes. I made some mistakes in my early years. Regretful mistakes. So I wish to aid you.” 

“But you hate me. As I hate you.” 

“I...used to fantasize about how much pain I would inflict you. But, I felt that way against my Kiran. When I looked at him, I felt anger, but when I look at you I feel...nothing. I think you are feeling the same. Otherwise you would have already disposed of me.” 

“...ugh. I need a drink.” Kiran pulled from the nearby table a bottle. “Do you have the age for drinking?”

“I grew hating the smell of that thing thanks to you and you think I want to drink it?” 

“It’s a yes or no?” 

“I’ll pass. I have not yet reached the age for those type of drinks.”

“...that reminds me I am basically using child soldiers in the army.” Kiran took a swing. 

“Man, things here are truly different from my world.” 

“Is your world free from the sufferings of war?” asked Veronica. 

“Well. Kinda. Not really. No. Yeah, definitely no. Guess no matter the world, man’s nature doesn’t change.” Kiran took another swing. 

Veronica seemed surprised. “That’s a really mature--” 

**“BUUURP”** Kiran burped. 

“...nevermind.” Veronica closed her eyes. “Although, I kinda want to visit your world. To see what kind of place shaped such a peculiar individual like you would be...interesting.”

“Heh, knowing you, you would probably go around buying Supreme merch.” 

“Of course, I’m princess. I’m sure I would only purchase the finest clothing.” 

“No I meant Supreme the..oh hell, nevermind.”

Kiran shrugged away the topic. 

“So? Am I to stay here to assist you?” asked Veronica. Kiran stayed in silence for a solid minute. 

“Yeah, sure, we need all the help possible.But.”

“But?” 

“You’ll have to assist me in something.”

“Which is?”

\-----

The moon shined high on the summoning ground. Empty shells of broken orbs littering the ground.

“THIS IS RIDICULOUS.”said Veronica exasperated.

“HEY YOU STOLE ME AWAY THE CHANCE TO SUMMON CELICA, YOU HELP ME GET HER!” said the summoner with deep bags under his eyes. 

“WE HAVE BEEN HERE ALL NIGHT! WE HAVE ONLY 10 ORBS LEFT!” 

“THEN WE’LL FARM SOME MORE!”

Veronica sighed. She wished she had a cup of tea. This was gonna be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who wants a long ass chapter about book 2 finale? I am kinda tempted to do it.


	26. GRAND FINALE! - Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prologue for my take of Book 2 ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go. Hope you like it

The time was near. The order had to stop Surtr once and for all before it was too late. If he succeeded in doing the ritual of flames, nothing would have been able to stop him. And to think they were once so close to ending it all.

 

_ A couple of weeks before _

“So. This is Surtr castle. Ain’t this a shithole.” Kiran commented as he and the royals of Arsk, alongside his trusted squad of chosen heroes, walked down the stern corridors of Muspell’s castle. The worst part about this entire place had to be the heat. The order had to bring with themselves more flasks of water than usual in order to not suffer of dehydration due to the hot air that seemed only to increase as they approached the main hall. 

“Aren’t you nervous, Kiran?” asked Alfonse.

“We’re about to face Surtr.” The emperor of Muspell had proven himself to be quite a threat, since nothing seemed so far capable of causing him any harm. Yet, despite this, the summoner had always dared to provoke him.

“Surtr’s a bitch. That big load of roasted beef hasn’t scared me since we first encountered him. Not to brag but I saw thousands like him and they all end up in the same way. Laid dead on the floor with a shocked face that screams “IMPOSSIBLE!”-Kiran gestured opening his jaw. The act was probably meant to break the tension, but he was met with a cold response. 

_ Wish I was drunk. At least I knew how to be of entertainment  _ \- Kiran though. Since the death of Gunnthra, Kiran had sworn to never drink another drop of alcohol until he defeated Surtr. Now sure, he made some exceptions here and there, but he was overall true to his promise.  Which right now made him more excited than ever to get rid of Surtr as soon as possible, since he had already a bottle of whisky with him ready to be opened the moment the giant cooked up human turkey dropped dead on the floor. 

Fjorm coughed, drawing the attention of everyone on her. The only reason the order was attacking Surtr right then was her, as she went through the ritual of frost in order to give the power necessary to defeat Surtr to Breidablik. She was fine and able to fight, but seemed to have caught a nasty cold. 

“You holding up, Fj?” Kiran asked. 

“Yes, I am fine, don’t worry.” said Fjorm. Despite the statement, Sharena and Alfonse still had a worried look. Kiran didn’t comment about it. He had an idea of what was going on, but he wanted Fjorm to make the first move. 

“We’re here.” said Anna. A giant door with gold ornaments engraved in it separated them from the Tyrant of Flames. Kiran turned to check on the heroes.

“Everyone ready?” asked the summoner.

“I’m at your side.” said Ike. 

“Let us handle this” said The Black Knight. Ike eyed him. Kiran was glad that he brought the Vanguard version of Ike with him, the other two...are kinda difficult to handle with BK around. At least with this Ike the two had a sort of reciprocal respect going on, or something like that. Their relationship was complicated honestly. 

“Yeah, Kiran, we got this! Right Nephenee?” said Soleil with a bright smile and leaning her head towards the lancer. 

“Ye.” simply replied Nephenee. 

“Just retreat if you find a enemy too tough. I’ll take care of it.” said Ishtar scrolling through her tome. “The same goes to you, milady. Do not take risks.” 

“I will. Thank you dear.” said Deidre smiling.  Ishtar turned away to hide the light blush on her cheeks. 

“You ready Kiran?” asked Anna.

“Let’s finish this.” said Kiran putting his hands on the door. After 10 seconds though, nothing happened. 

“Uhm...guys...I don’t think I can open this door alone.” said Kiran embarrassed. 

As they opened the door, a heat wave invested them. Surtr was waiting for them, accompanied by a little reunion of the black fang. 

“Ah, so you have com--”

“HOLY SHIT IS THAT LAVA.” yelled Kiran.

“HOW DO YOU BUILD A CASTLE ON LAVA. AND WHAT’S WITH THAT SPIKY CORRIDOR? THIS PLACE IS A GIANT SAFETY HAZARD!”

“....So you have come. I was waiting for you--”

“DO NOT IGNORE ME.” 

“Kiran, this is the moment, shoot at him!” 

“Shoot? Ah, right, Breidablik.”  Kiran pulled out his trusted gun, spinning it around his finger like he was a cowboy from his world. 

“NOW GET READY FOR TH--” spinning the gun the summoner accidentaly pulled the trigger and shot the divine weapon. Luckily the shot hit Surtr. Straight in the croch. 

“UPHH!” The tyrant muttered biting his lips. 

“What.” said Kiran. 

“wu..whuaat..” muttered Surtr. The flames surrounding his slowly died out. 

“What.”

“HERE’S OUR CHANGE, CHARGE!” cried out Alfonse. 

“WHAT!” yelled Surtr. 

And thus the battle began. 

Kiran quickly noticed Ursula and Nino charging against Soleil and Nephenee, who were on the lead. Those two shaging lovers were some of the strongest units close combat but they had no chance against tome users. “IKE, COVER NEPHENEE. SOLEIL, GET BEHIND FJORM.” 

Just in the nick of time, Ike took the blow meant for Nephenee and stroke back, sending KO the flying mage. Nino would have fell in the lava if Legault didn’t jump to catch her by mounting on her pegasus.  Fjorm moved aside and absorbed the spell, only to repel it back with her lance, leaving a trail of ice on the ground that knocked out the assassin from her horse. Surtr roared in anger and grabbed Ursula’s horse to throw it against Alfonse and Anna, that were charging him. Under the muttered “What the fuck” of Kiran, the horse flew in the air, crushing Canas, that was in the middle of a fight with Ishtar, and kept moving foward towards the young prince.  The commander managed to grab Alfonse by the arm to pull him away just in time. Linus and Lyon arrived from behind, meeting blades with Sharena and Black Knight. The fight between the mad dog and the black knight was harsh as much it was quick, while Sharena took a bit longer to dispose of Lloyd. Legault fell from the crazed pegasus with Nino in her arms, only to find himself with Soleil’s sword and Nephanee’s lance aimed at him. “Eh. Guess I’ll surrender.” said Legault smiling.  The emperor gritted his teeth at the poor display of strength. 

“WEAK! YOU ARE ALL USELESS.” yelled Surtr as he send a wave of flames against Legault and the others. A block of ice however emerged  right in front of them and blocked the rush of flames. 

“NO ONE WILL DIE BY YOUR HAND ANYMORE, SURTR!” proclaimed Fjorm as she charged him. The princess fought with majesty and bravery, but it was clear that Surtr had the upper hand. Surtr crashed his axe that was merely held back by Fjorm’s lance. Surtr smiled as he saw the princess struggling to held back his weight. 

“Even with Frost Ritual you are weak, child. Do you really think you will be the one to stop me?” said Surtr. 

“No. I am not.” said Fjorm smiling. “I am  _ the decoy _ .” Surtr noticed a figure jumping behind the princess, before a bright light almost blinded him.

**“AETHER!”** yelled Ike as he crashed down on Surtr. The tyrant managed to kick off Fjorm to raise his axe and parry the Vanguard. The impact was strong, but he had blocked it. 

However, as Surtr was still clashing arms with Ike, the emperor felt a deep voice on his left.

“I heard you were untouchable, King of Flames. However, now that you lost your flames to protect you, I wonder…

**_WILL YOU SURVIVE THIS?”_ **

The Black knight was already attacking the fully exposed king alongside an injured yet still standing Fjorm. Surtr’s eyes widened in surprise as time felt like it was slowing down. Kiran smiled as he watched Black Knight. 

_ Quickened Pulse- At the start of the battle, grants Special cooldown.  _

Equipped on:  _ Black Knight _

_ Wings of Mercy- Enables unit to warp adjacent to any ally injured _

Equipped on:  _ Black Knight _

 

Alondite cut deep inside Surtr’s chest while Fjorm’s lance pierced his stomach, literally threw him 10 feet away. Surtr crashed against his throne and destroyed it to crumbles. Everyone held their breath and awaited Surtr to rise up. He didn’t. 

“We did it.” said Fjorm, tears on her eyes. 

“HELL YEAH WE DID IT! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!” Kiran said, pulling out a bottle to celebrate. 

“I CAN START DRINKING AGAIN!” said Kiran. Anna shook her head, but was smiling. Even the other heroes seemed to share the sentiment. But as Kiran opened the bottle, a eruption of fire exploded from where Surtr was. And in a blink of an eye, Surtr was alive again. 

“AH! AS A PHOENIX, I RISE AGAIN FROM MY--”

“ **FUCK YOU”** yelled on top of his lungs Kiran as he threw the bottle on Surtr’s face. The glass broke as it shower its liquid on the tyrant.

“ **FUCK YOUR BULLSHIT. FUCK YOUR PLOT ARMOR FUCK THOSE WHO ALLOWED IT  FUCK YOUR AXE FUCK YOUR ARMOR FUCK YOUR MOTHER FUCK YOUR FATHER AND MOST OF ALL FUCK** **YOU** **”** said the summer with foam on his mouth, while being held back from Ike and Black Knight. The bottle liquid was already evaporating as Surtr smiled and licked some of the booze that was dripping. Kiran, if it was possible, saw even more red than before and now Anna had to add herself to hold him. 

“ **NO ONE DENIES MY BOOZE SURTR.** **NO ONE** **. YOU ARE DEAD MAN WALKING.”**

yelled Kiran as he was being carried away as the order was retreating. 

“ **YOU HEARD ME YOU GIANT PLOT ARMORED KISSED FUCKER. YOU. ARE. DEAD.”** The summoner’s threats became more distant as he was carried away. Surtr returned to his usual frown and spat on the ground. The content of that bottle was disgusting. He sat on the throne, and rejoiced in the battle. He was really invincible thanks to the ritual of flames. Soon the world will be one with the flames. And no one would have been able to stop him.  _ Not even death itself. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like the Prologue. It's gonna take like 2 chapters if everything is correct. I consider the proper finale the last chapter. I kinda wanted to jump right into it, but might as well give it a proper introduction. Now, how the hell do I fit Veronica in all of this. Do I reharsh the previous chapter? Do I just pretend she was already there? Uhhhhhmmmmm.   
> Let me know what you think about it!


	27. Grand Finale: Prologue 2: The Traitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, posting this in rush cause I swear this chapter was cursed to turn bad whatever approach I took. I hope you can enjoy it nevertheless.

Well things so far had gone to shit.

The good news: the order had found a way to kill Surtr.

The bad news: it still didn’t work.

The other good news: the order found Fjorm’s little sister and big brother.

THE OTHER bad news: now there was a traitor amongst their rankings, and the leaders of the order had to discover who was the mole before it was too late.

“We have to be careful, we can’t know who the traitor is.” said wary Alfonse. “It could be either everyone of us.”

“It’s fucking Ylgr.” responded Kiran with an annoyed tone.

“You are correct, prince Alfonse. We should try to come up with something to prevent any leaks of information until we understand who is the mole.” continued Hgrid.

“She literally called me by my name before anybody else introduced us.”

“We can’t ignore the ritual of flames. If we don’t act quickly Surtr could become unstoppable.”

“The sentiment of paranoia could harm the troops however. We have to careful.” intervened Anna.

“STOP IGNORING ME!” said Kiran, but got no response from the three royals. Offended, Kiran walked away from the tend in which they were having the meeting. Kiran would call by no means the royals of Arsk stupid, but if all it took to turn the sorts of the war around was only one dude brought from another world _there had to be a reason._ Upon exiting the tent, Kiran was met with a rather moody camp. The morale was low and even the always-cheerful heroes seemed down.The failed attempt at killing Surtr and the revelation that now he could become invincible at any moment were a tough strike to take in. Kiran’s thoughts were disrupted when he saw Fjorm and Sharena rush towards him.

“Kiran! Thank gods you are outside!!”

“What is it, Sharena?”

“Helblindi! He’s attacking!”

“Fucker is still alive? What’s so hard for Muspell’s people to understand the concept of _staying dead_.” said Kiran frustrated.

To be honest, Helblindi was the last person on Kiran’s list of least favorite people, but the talent of the muspell general to not die and show up to create more ruckus was starting to get old pretty fast.

“Ah, screw it, I’ll gather around some people. We need to advance anyway.”

said Kiran while marching towards one of the big tents.

“Who did you had in mind?” asked Sharena.

“Guess I’ll test the new recruits.” said Kiran.

Busting in  the tent without announcing, the summoner startled Alm, who jumped of the bed to roll and grab Falchion.

“WHO--”

“Well those are some nice reflexes.” commented Kiran while Sharena and Fjorm gasped. Alm immediately lowered his sword and gave a sight of release upon seeing Kiran.

“Jeez, Kiran, we need to talk about this habit of yours someday.” he said smiling, but betraying a hint of frustration. Then he noticed that Sharena and Fjorm were averting their gaze, red in the face, and he realized then that in the rush, he didn’t put some clothes on and  was standing there naked. “M-MY APOLOGIES-- I...I…” said Alm trying to cover himself with some of the bedsheets. A figure rose up from the bed, just awaken and stretched.

“Uhmmm. Alm? Did Kiran just barge in out of the blue again?” asked a rather sleepy Celica.

“He did.” said Alm, his cheeks red.

“Morning Celica.” said Kiran. “I am looking for your brave self. You seen her?” asked Kiran.

“mmm I’m here.” said Brave Celica rising up from the  other side of the bed. Fjorm and Sharena became even redder in face while Kiran just looked at Alm with a condescended face.

“Lucky.” said Kiran at Alm before turning to brave Celica “We are moving, dress up. Oh, and Alm, same goes for you.”

“I am coming too?”

“No, put some clothes on. Looks like you already came enough.”

“KIRAN!” almost everyone in the tent shouted, covering the summoner laught.

~~

The quiet of the forest had a quite charm for Veronica. She was used to the silence  and gloomy atmosphere of her castle in Embla, but now as a member of the order of heroes she grew quite fold of nature. A white butterfly flew in front of her and landed on her hand when she extended it. The butterfly seemed at ease resting on her finger. Birds chipped in the distance as the ray of the sun passed through the leaves. Perhaps this the kind of peace she’s been looking for. Little moments like this.

 

“ **VERONICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA** ”

 

And then the peace was gone. Raising herself up, Veronica stood up from the log she was relaxing and turned to see an oblivious  Summoner ready to yell her name again.

“Save your breath and my ears, I’m here.” said Veronica raising her hand before Kiran could yell.

“Ah there you are. Get ready, we have to fight Hellbindi.” Veronica raised an eyebrow as she walked alongside him.

“The troglodyte? Didn’t we dispose of him already?”

“I thought the same but he seems allergic at dying.”

“No matter. I have my history of dealing with unkillable, drunken rude cockroaches. Let’s go. We still need to save that spoiled version of myself.” said the princess increasing her speed and getting ahead.

“Grea--- wait what are implying with that cockroach  thing? VERONICA?”

\----

The hot lands of Muspell steamed and burned, while the enemy contingent marched.

“There they are!” said Fjorm pointing out the enemy in the distance. Helblindi was marching alongside other soldiers towards the Order of Heroes. The general had been defeated already a couple of times by the order but always managed to come back. Survivability was sure enough his greatest skill. That and his...accents of sort.

“GET READY TO GET SUM, SCUM! HELBINDI IS IN DA HOUSE!”

 

“Curses, he’s using that accent again.” said Veronica cringing.  

“Relax, I’ll handle it.” said Kiran stepping forward.

“Summoner I don’t really think many of us will be able to--” With a sharp inhale, Kiran started yelling. Apparently Helbindi and Kiran had their own way of understanding each other, almost as if under the incomprehensible gibberish there was an actual discussion going on.  

“AY AY AY HELBINDI BRO, WHAT’S POPPIN’?

_(Greetings helbindi, foe gen'ral.  What bringeth thee h're to visage us?)”_

 

“AH WOULD YA LOOK, HOODIE IS HERE! YOU’RE GONNA BE THE FIRST TO GET WRECKED BY MEH AX FOR WHAT YOU DID LAST TIME!”

 _(Ah wouldst ya behold, the hood'd sir_ _  
_ _is hither! You’re gonna beest the first to receiveth wreck'd by mine ax f'r what thee didst lasteth timeth!”)_

“Awww what u mad bro? You salty about the fact I kicked your sorry ass for the thousandth time?

 _(Aw, art thee nimble-footed, fellow?_ _  
_ _art thee bitt'r about the fact yond i has't defeat'd thee timeth and timeth again?)”_

 

“YOU’RE ‘BOUT  TO LEARN HOW TO RESPECT THE TOP!

_(Thou art about to learneth wherefore thee shouldst respect the  ones bigg'r than thee!)”_

 

Helbindi raised his axe and gave the order, and the enemy contingent marched.

“Kiran, what’s going on?” asked Veronica.

“Uh?” Kiran turned to look at her. “Oh, we’re fighting.” said nonchalantly. Veronica looked at Kiran, waiting for orders, but the summoner seemed to not have realized his own words.

“OH FUCK WE ARE FIGHTING” said Kiran widening his eyes.

“EHrRM-- CHAARGE!” commanded Kiran.

 

………

 

As usual, Helbindi found himself laid on the ground, wounded but not dead. He would be impressed with the Summoner’s tactics if he wasn’t the one victim of them. This time around the overall fight lasted less than 5 minutes. What was it, the third time he got defeated? He wondered if he could still manage to gather enough time to fight them one last time. Or if that devil of Surtr would actually overlook his mistakes he committed before archiving victory.  He still wasn’t sure if not reporting after his first defeat had been a wise move, convinced that if he didn’t show up to report his defeat, Surtr would still consider him in the game. The general felt a pair of footsteps getting closer to him.

_I ain’t going down that easily. Not when she is still waiting for me at home._

Helbindi tried to rise himself up, but the wounds felt like daggers inside his flesh. But that felt like nothing in confront to imagining Menja’s face if her big bro didn’t return home. With a few groans, he lifted himself up and assumed a fighting stance. Didn’t matter if he had to face the entire order of scums, he WILL return home to his little sister.

 

“You are still alive.” said a firm and stern voice.

Helbindi could recognize that voice everywhere. After all, Surtr’s first daughter was a merciful angel (of death) in confront of her father.

“...what are you doing here?” asked Helbindi. “I have still a mission to finish, I don’t need help.”

“I am not here to aid help to a nobody.” said firmly Laegjarn.

“What did ya say now?!” shouted Helbindi.

“You heard me. You have been demoted from your position since your initial failure by father.” said Laegjarn.

“..what?” asked Helbindi in a genuine moment of confusion.

“...besides, to make an example out of you…” Laegjarn seemed to stammer for a moment, but Helbindi was too stunted to notice it. “...to make an example out of you, Father has burned the slums.”

Helbindi felt his heart stop.

“There were no survivors.” continued Laegjarn, stern, yet looking at the ground. .

The world in that moment felt...cold. Surrounded by fire and lava, Helbindi swore he never felt so cold.

“I have searched but...There were no traces of your sister, Helbindi.” Laegjarn took a turn to leave and walked past behind him. Everything started spinning. Was the world crashing down? Did it matter? She was gone. She was gone and it was his fault.

“...do yourself a favor and go hide somewhere. I won’t report you.” Laegjarn stopped for a moment. The slums were gone. She was gone. Hiding? What was the point? Hide for things to calm down and then what? Return to his home, reduced now to a pile of black ash?

_Did she turned into a pile of ash? Was there a body left?_

“I am sorry. For Menja.” added Laegjarn.

Helbindi just stood in silence. He gritted his teeth. His hand started bleeding from how much he was grasping the handle of his axe. Without adding a word, he started walking, limp on a leg, away from the battlefield. Laegjarn turned to see him get away, and with a firm whistle, recalled her wyvern to her and took off.

 

“Where had you been?” asked Lavaetin with her usual monotone voice. Only her big sister could perceive the hint of curiosity and worry in the deadpanness.

“Had to deliver a message.” replied Laegjarn. “Any news on the Arskians?”

“They have found Hrid.”  

“And what does that mean?” asked Laegjarn, in her usual attempt to force her little sister to use her brain for something else beside fighting. If she ever had to rule the country one day, she will need to do something beside waving her sword.

“....” Lavaetein seemed deep in thought. “It means they probably know already of the ritual of flames. It means they know they have little time to act. It means they will come for us.” stated the minor princess.

“Exactly.” said Laegjarn smiling, only to frown once the realization settled in.

“We have to inform Father.” said Lavaetin. Laegjarn felt a chill run down his spine. This was gonna be...difficult.

 

“Well that was fucking easy.” said Kiran returning to the camp.

“I don’t even know what was going on.” said Veronica.

“Oh, you’ll get used to it.” said Fjorm giggling.

“This order is completely insane.” stated Veronica.

“They sure are...uhm...unconventional.” tried to justify Brave Celica.

 

“Kiran! Fjorm!”

Alfonse and Hrid were waiting them at the strategy tent.

“Come for a second, we have to discuss about something.”

“Do you have any idea what they might want to talk about, Kiran?” asked Fjorm.

“Probably about the fact that they know who the “traitor” is.” said Kiran.

“We know who the traitor is. It’s Ylgr.” said Alfonse.

“NO FUCKING SHIT SHERLOCK” said Kiran, arms crossed and feet on the table.

Fjorm, on the other hand, was pale.

“No. She can’t be. We made a promise ***cough*** to save our kingdom.” Fjorm was rapidly panicking.

“Hrid, we made a promise, did we not? ***Cough*** ” she started asking her brother.

“Well it’s simple then, that’s not Ylgr.” said Kiran.

“What?” said Fjorm.

“She’s Loki.”

“No. No she can’t be. She’s like my sister.”

“Fjorm, Loki can assume the form of whoever she wants.”

“No. No. She has been all this time here. I know my sister. She’s Ylgr. ***COUGH*** I know. We made a ***COUGH** * promise! She’s been *COUGH* *COUGH* here with us all the whole time!”

“And guess why we constantly got ambushed.”

“ **NO! WE MADE A PROMISE! S-SHE IS MY SISTER! SHE HAS TO! *COUGH* *COUGH*”**

“Fjorm you are not thinking straight, calm down.”

“NO! I KNOW WHO ARE MY ***COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH***

Without warning, Fjorm stood up and left the tent, still violently coughing. Before Hrid could stop her, she was gone.

“What was all that about?” asked Alfonse. Kiran didn’t say anything, yet felt his pit in his stomach grow bigger and bigger.

“Let’s follow her.”

 

\--

The world was spinning. Fjorm could stand on her legs. Leaning on a tree, she was trying to breath, the coughts making her choke out all the air out of her lungs. The world was spinning and all she could see were sparkles. She thought that some air could help her out, but instead now she was worried she was gonna die here in the woods, under a tree.

 

“Are you fine, Fjorm?” asked Ylgr, appearing out of nowhere.

“Oh, Yldr, my little sister….” Fjorm managed to breath. “I heard the strangest accusations…”

“About the fact that I am the traitor?”

“Yes. But don’t worry, I know you are innocent. You made a promise with me and Hrid, remember?” Fjorm was speaking, yet she felt like she was in a dream. The rite of frost was taking a tool on her, and with the recent fight with Helbindi before, it was playing tricks on her head.

“Well, you are correct, Fjorm. Ylgr IS innocent. But you see, I am not her.”

Ylgr disappeared and in her place was standing Loki, with her characteristic sadistic smile.

“My, you truly are foolish, going alone in the forest. Wonder if anybody could hear you scream…”

 

\--

Fjorm woke up. She was still in the forest. Was it a dream? A premonition? _Just what in the world was that all about?_

“Ah.  There you are” Hrid appeared. “I followed your steps as soon as you left the tent. Are you ok, Fjo?” he asked with concern.

“...I don’t know, brother.”

“Alfonse went looking for Ylgr. He and Kiran are pretty convinced that she is Loki in disguise.”

“How do I know you are not her?” asked Fjorm.

“Remember that time you thought you could reshape your clothes with ice magic?”

“....”

“You had to wear the same outfit for the next two weeks.”

“It’s not funny.”

“For you it sure wasn’t.”

“Well I guess you truly are my brother, only you would be so cruel to rub that wound.” said Fjorm, letting a small smile.

 

Hrid sat beside her. Dropping his stren mask, he sighted and leaned his head against the tree.

“I know it’s been tough.”

“It’s not been tough. It’s been worse.” said Fjorm.

“Yeah. I...I should have been there for you. Instead I was so taken by my quest for revenge that….”

“No. I did the same mistake. When Muspell invaded, I took the sacred lance, and went off alone to face him. I was stupid.”

“You went missing. I knew you probably were alive, but still...I didn’t search. Before I knew it, I was hellbend on my quest to destroy Surtr. And now we lost Gunnthra. And Ylgr is gonna be--”

“We’ll save her, Hrid.” replied Fjorm, her eyes shining with determination.

“We will save her. We have Kiran and the order on our side. You have seen how fierce the Order of Heroes is.”

“I noticed.” he chuckled. “Although Kiran is…”

“...yeah he’s a weirdo.” said Fjorm smiling.

“...Do you perhaps…?” asked Hrid.

“What?” Fjorm looked at him puzzled. Then she realized and blushed.

“Oh no no no! Heavens no! He’s...he’s WAY too...well, too much for me. Besides, he and commander Anna seems to get along fine, so I never really tough about it. I just...I guess I am grateful to him for saving my life. And I admire the determination with which he pulls through--”

  
“HRID!” the voice of Alfone echoed in the forest. The prince appeared in sight, rushing towards them.

“Alfonse? What’s happening?” said Hrid, putting back on his mask of stern warrior.

“Ylgr is nowhere to be found. She probably ran away. We need to regroup. Follow me.”

A crackling of bushes startled them, making the trio assume their combat position.

Kiran appeared out of the bushes, a bit shocked to see everyone pointing their weapon at him.

“Look guys, I know I don’t deploy you very often on the battlefield but this is kinda an extreme…”

“Summoner, you should be more careful. Ylgr has disappeared, so she probably is gonna warn the enemy of our location.” said Alfone. Kiran looked at him weird.

“Weren’t you behind me?” asked Kiran. Silence fell. The a new Alfonse appeared behind Kiran.

“What in the--” asked the new Alfonse.

“Summoner.” said the first Alfonse rushing towards him “GET AWAY FROM--”.

Without warning, Kiran kicked  the rushing Alfonse in the balls. The prince yelled for the pain, but he quickly raised his head in frustration.

“What is wrong with you, Summoner?!”

“Come on, drop the act. A man kicked in the balls so hard would not be able to form a correct sentence for the next five minutes. Also you keep calling me Summoner when the real Alfonse stopped since we arrived here in Nilf.” said Kiran.

The first Alfonse smiled. A cloud of purple smog erupted, and where he stood now stood Loki.

“Oh my. You saw right through me, didn’t you.” said coily Loki.

“You are the dumb ho who called me by name before we had even introduced.” replied Kiran.

“Uhm...my greatest slip. But I suppose the image of you trying to convince everyone that I was the villain was worth the trouble.”

“Ah, you see, that’s where you are wrong.”

A thunder fell in between the summoner and Loki, and all around them appeared countless heroes of the order.

“Most of the heroes were more than willing to believe my story. And you, dear trickster, have committed the fatal error of revealing yourself near our camp.”

Loki was silent for a second. Then her wicked smile retook form, before she started chuckling and devolving into a full blown laughter.

“My my~ You truly are an entertaining one. I am impress. Therefore, here, take this.” Loki plunged her hand between her breasts and pulled out a scroll. Kiran was shocked for a second by the action that he didn’t process the roll of paper being thrown at him.. Luckily Veronica managed to capture it before it hit the ground.

“Summoner, focus!” snapped Veronica.

“Y-yeah! Thanks, lass.” thanked Kiran.

“With that map, you’ll be able to reach Surtr in no time. And it’s your only chance if you want to save those two pesky rats.”

“Can I knock her out cold?” asked Veronica.

“I don’t think she would let you.” commented Kiran.

“Sharp one, are you? Fufufu. It’s been fun, but I think I’ll take my leave now.”

“WAIT!” shouted Alfonse.

“Why doing this? Why infiltrate in our camp, why give us the key to betray your king?”

“Oh Darling.” Loki turned her neck, her head tilted. “Haven’t you get it yet? I love chaos. I love mischiefs. And the faces you’ll make every time you’ll ask yourself “Was that really the person I talked to? Or was it Loki?” THAT will be one of my greatest pleasures.”

“And besides.” her tone grew heavier.

“That empty vessel of burned meat is not my king.” she giggled, and with a purple explosion, she was gone.

Silence fell, the heroes shocked and disgusted about the revelation. She was right. The thought about who had they talking to from time to time was creeping in, digging inside their brains.

“Just to be clear, I called it since day one.” said the summoner.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My eyes are tired and I ain't gonna proofread it before tomorrow, so my apologies for any error, hope it didn't compromise your experience too much.


	28. GRAND FINALE: The Death of a Tyrant.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surtr fucking dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is one big boy, hope ya like it.  
> A little warning, this chapter is kinda violent.

It’s a simple path to follow. The fire is  absolute power, it’s unquenchable, it’s everything. By nature itself, the fire simply spreads, disregarding the obstacle in front of it. Everything is just fuel for its spread. Surtr knew that, since the day he offered his body to the flames in order to gain more power, burning his old self and leaving its empty shell. His memories before that day are foggy at best, nonexistent at worst. His heart itself doesn’t feel anything except the burning. May it be of passion or anger, it’s too intense to determine, therefore he really can’t sympathize with everyone else. In his eyes, everyone is just fuel for the fire. Willingly or not. So that’s why he can operate only in absolute. Rage cannot be translate in nothing but wrath, pleasure cannot be translate in nothing but sadism. The fire is absolute. He is absolute. He is fire. So that’s why when his fist connect with Laevatein’s cheek, sending the girl flying away, he was grinning both out of anger and sadism. But mostly anger.

“THEY STILL LIVE.” Surtr shouted. It’s a simple pact to follow. Everyone is fuel to the fire. Those who can’t sustain it, must perish. No exceptions. His hand grabbed her throat, lifting her up as her feet dangled. 

“For the weak there is only death!” he said, throwing her away like a broken toy. 

“FATHER, STOP! If you keep doing this she’ll…!” Laegjarn shouted, stepping forward to protect her sister. 

“She’ll what, die? What concern of it is yours?” he roared. The fire needed to be reignited. Too many missteps. Too many failures by his supposed “daughter”. To slow down even for a bit means putting at risk the might of the flame. And the last breeze of cold wind from Nilf was reaching his doorsteps quickly than anticipated. And all of this could have been avoided if her daughter would have done her duty and defeated them. 

“Father, I--” muttered Laevatein, her eyes watering for the pain as she cupped her cheek. 

“You have to redeem for your wrongs, child. I will offer you one last chance. Offer yourself to the flames of Muspell.” he commanded. 

“The flames?! But--!” Laegjarn shouted. “No, I cannot allow this!” Laegjarn said.  

“Allow? You think you can stop a direct order from me? Have I raised such foolish girls?” he grinned. His mind actually didn’t remember his own daughters. To his eyes, they were nothing that something a part of his burned mind regarded as valuable. But he was starting to doubt his old self-opinions.

“No, father. I will perform the ritual. I will stop the enemy. Send me instead.” Laegjarn said. Laevatein stared at her sister, her eyes wide in shock and mouth open. Surtr grunted.

“Do as you see fit. But if you fail, your sister will follow your same fate.” he laughed. One daughter, two daughters. It didn’t matter. Fuel to the fire is never refused. Laegjarn nodded, and headed towards the exit. Laevatein grabbed her sister’s arm, trying to muster the proper words to plead her to don’t do it. But all she managed to say were mumblings and Laegjarn freed herself from her grasp without saying a word.  Laevatein was staring at her sister, unable to process. Laegjarn instead never turned around, keeping her composure in order to not show the tears running down her face. Surtr felt that tiny voice again. A minute voice echoing from the depths of his mind. He didn’t mind it much attention, but as of late it was starting to get annoying. 

 

Surtr blinked, returning to reality.  Laevatein was still on the ground, facing the floor.

“Get up girl.” Surtr said. Laevatein rose up without saying a word and left. 

Surtr was once again alone in his throne room. Suppressing the annoying voice, he sat on the throne, and waited.

Soon enough, the last desperate effort of Nilf and Arsk will arrive. He grinned.

After they are ash, everything will burn. 

  
  
  
  


That night, few miles away, the Order of Heroes was getting ready for what could possibly be the last battle to put an end to this long expedition. The tension was high, everyone was getting ready in their own way. The Grimas were patrolling around the camp, praying for some unfortunate scout to stumble upon them and get devoured as a snack before the great buffet of the following day. Nino was sleeping on Jafar’s lap as he sharpened his knives. Black Knight stared at his helmet in the solitude of his tent. Inside his, Kiran was revisioning his plans for the following day. If everything went according to plan, it would have been a cakewalk. But there were a lot of factors that he couldn’t count in. Anna entering in his tent was one of them. 

“Hey.” Anna said, his tone more serious than normal. Kiran looked at her and moved with the chair a little bit away from the table so that she could sit on his lap. Her arm wrapped around his neck as she sat on his legs. 

“How are we?” she asked.

“Tense, but optimistic.” he said with a tired tone.

“That’s good. If you are optimistic, everyone else will.” she smiled.

“And what about you?”

“I’m crapping my pants.” she said with a nervous giggle. “But don’t worry, I came up with a plan in order to gain some coins from this!” she continued, immediately turning back to her usual humor. 

“What did you do?” asked Kiran with a sigh. 

“I made insurance to every member of the order! For every hero knocked out, we gain a good amount of coins!” she said winking as she stuck her tongue out.

“....Are you suggesting me to play badly and get as many heroes hurt as possible.” asked blatantly Kiran. 

“Of course not! I know you are perfectly capable of winning this without any loses.” said Anna crossing her arms. 

“Buuuut a good tactician probably can manage to find a compromise to make an ally happy.” she said, poking his nose with a sly smile. Kiran was utterly unimpressed.

“You know what? That sounds great.” he said, smiling out of the sudden. 

“ yeS !” muttered Anna 

“That money will sure be useful to expand the barracks.”

“ nO !” muttered Anna. 

“The barracks? Seriously? We already have 300 rooms available!” she continued.

“As long as you don’t invent a ray that turns people into books, I’m afraid I’ll keep every summoned hero.” said Kiran. 

Anna pouted, but then a sad frown started forming.

“Still, we don’t know if this will be our last battle.” Anna said. 

“Won’t be, Anna. You know as they say, ain’t no rest for the wicked.” 

“Who’s the wicked here?” said Anna raising her eyebrow. 

“You are a pathologically obsessed money grabber while I am a drunken buffoon.”

“You stopped drinking tho.” she remarked.

“And why do you think I want to defeat Surtr as soon as possible? I literally can’t hold it anymore. Feels like I’m losing my mind.” he half-shouted, his arms going up in the air. 

“Well, maybe I can help you with that.” Anna said in a lusty tone, leaning in and giving him a quick kiss on the lips, before rising up and undoing her cape. Catching the clue, Kiran started undressing as well, while trying at the same time to make out with the commander. Stumbling on his own pants, Kiran fell on top of Anna, making them both fall to the ground, although not stopping their makeout session. 

The tent opened as Kiran and Anna snapped their heads towards the opening. Brave Veronica was standing there, looking at them, her usual neutral face undecryptable, . The air froze. Veronica blinked as the two stared at her paralyzed. The princess broke the silence with a sigh. 

“This Order is having truly a bad influence on me. Normally I would have announced myself, but this time around I didn’t even think about it. Well, serves me right. Now sorry, I am going to find Tharja and ask her if she knows a curse that can delete memories before I gauge my eyes out.” 

And with that, Veronica left, leaving the two almost naked commanders to elaborate what just happened. 

.

.

.

.

 

“....FUCKING TOLD YOU WE NEEDED LOCKS FOR THE TENT!” 

“I AM  **NOT** WASTING MONEY FOR SOMETHING SO STUPID!” 

“WELL I GUESS WE SAW HOW IT TURNED OUT HUH?!”

 

\---------

The night passed quickly, and the following day arrived. It was kinda difficult to determine if it was day already, given the hellish scenery of Muspell, but everyone agreed that there was no more time to waste. Kiran gazed from the top of the hill the temple in which Surtr was gonna perform the Ritual of Flames. Hrid, walked up at his side, looking at the near temple. Outside of it was lined up a vast group of soldiers, probably waiting for them to make the next move. 

“So. Here we are. Back again.” said Kiran.  “Hoy Hrid, what is this, the third time you fought Surtr?”

“Second, actually.”

“Neat. Me too.” 

“So what’s the strategy to make our way in? We have the map thanks to Loki, but we can’t sneak up the guards at the front.” asked the Nilf prince. 

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I send two of heroes as a distraction. They should start around now.” 

“You send only two heroes?”

“As a distraction.”

“That’s....”

“Trust me.   _ The ones you should be worried about are the enemies.” _

 

Muspell’ soldiers were lined up in front of the temple, waiting for the Order of Heroes to show up. At the horizon appeared a lonely figure, walking towards them. The archers tensed up their bows, ready to strike at any given command. However when it was clear that there was no one else, the commander dismissed them.

“Let’s not waste arrows, there is no one else with them.” said the commander.

“Only one? Do they want to negotiate?”  muttered one soldier, holding back his laugh while the soldiers besides giggled.

The lonely figure stopped for a moment. From that distance not much was clear, except the purple cape that enveloped them. Then they started running. 

“What? Are they charging? With only one man?!” the Muspell commander laughed, followed by his soldiers. 

A flash shined behind the running man, and the giant head of a  six-eyed dragon appeared behind their back. 

“Is that a dragon behind him?!” shouted one of the soldiers as the laughter was quickly replaced by panic. 

“What kind of hero has such ability?!” 

“They are charging us with a damn dragon!” 

The commander tried to keep the situation under control as panic was quickly spreading among his lines. 

“Stand in position, men! DON’T--” a sudden rush of wind invested them and the commander was lifted up in the air by the jaws of another dragon. Above them stood a woman, her purple aura sending shivers down the spine of the Muspell soldiers. Her red eyes pulsating as she smiled licking her lips while the commander was devoured by the six-eyed dragon popping up behind her. 

“How many little tasty worms.” she said smiling. 

The soldiers were shocked, unable to do nothing but stare in fear as they watched the commander being swallowed. 

“Incoming!” shouted someone.

The running man had jumped, he too emanating a threatening purple aura, and landed among them, his bloodshot eyes widening as he grinned, showing off his canines and charging a red ball of energy in his hand. 

“Hey worms. Wanna see a dead body?” 

 

\----

 

“General, they are coming.” Silas reported to Laegjarn. Outside, the battle had already begun, with the Order breaking the temple defences. The Grimas were leading the attack, their dragon forms spurting behind their back and decimating the muspell’s forces. 

“Order the troops to retreat inside the castle. They are no match for them anyway. Take the other heroes and separate them in multiple groups. We have to buy as much time as possible for Father’s ritual to take place.” Laegjarn commanded. The echoes from outside were getting closer. Laegjarn sighed. Soon enough they will arrive. 

\---

In the undergrounds of the temple, where the cells were located, two royal girls were fearful of their dooming fate. Well, one of them at least.

“Have you heard the weird noises upstairs?” Ylgr asked, with fear in her voice and hands trembling as she stood near the bars cells, trying to look at the dark corridor, the stone roof above them shaking, dust falling. 

“No.” said Veronica indifferent, laid on the only spartan bed with her eyes closed. A bit of dust landed on her face, making her stir up of the bed to get it off. 

“ *sigh*” said Veronica.

“Are you ok?” Ylgr asked.

“No.”

“How could you not? This place is like a gigantic oven! I feel my forces being drained from my body.” said Ylgr trying to cool herself off using her sleeves as a fan. 

“You think they are gonna kill us?”

“Most likely.” said indifferent Veronica. 

Ylgr gasped as she covered her face with her hands. 

“Oh no! I cannot die here! I ‘m too young (and beautiful) to die here! There are so many worlds (and boys) I wanna see! I have never known yet love! (Nor the touch of my first lover!)” the princess finishes blushing, covering her mouth with her giant sleeves. 

“Whatever.” said Veronica.

“Oh, you must be kidding, have you ever felt deep emotions towards someone who makes your heart beat?” asked Ylgr, pouting. 

“Yes. Arsk’ summoner.” 

“You feel deep love for him??” asked curious Ylgr, dropping the damsel in distress act. 

“No. Deep hate. And you are getting closer.” 

“Awww, you’re a meanie. I mean, we’ve been together in this cell for weeks now, how could you loath a companion cell like me after all this time?” 

“Yeah...Wonder how….” 

“You brats finished catfighting?” asked a voice outside of the cell. Ylgr turned, her eyes shining. 

“Ah! It’s--”

“QUIET WOULD YOU” Helbindi half-shouted. 

“I am getting you out of here, but you have to be quiet! There are guards everywhere.” Helbindi said opening the cell door.

“Wait, why are you helping us?” asked Ylgr.

“I..Ugh...Well..I dunno! I dunno why I am doing anything of this! Risking my life for two brats like you, I musta have completely lost my mind!” 

“I knew you were a good person, sir Helbindi.” said Ylgr smiling. 

“Do you ever shut up?” asked Veronica as she stepped out of the cell. Ylgr didn’t pay it any mind and followed her. 

“You’re lucky brats, for some reason the squad sent to took you is in delay! Quick let’s go!” Helbindi said as he guided them down the corridor. 

\----

The squad sent by Surtr to retrieve the two prisoners were walking down the temple’s halls, the walls shaking as it could be heard the commotion outside. 

“What is going on out there?!” asked one of the soldiers. 

“The askrian forces are attacking.” said the leader. “We just need to head this way and--”

Another group of soldiers appeared from the corner, running in a hurry. 

“GET AWAY! THOSE THINGS ARE ALMOST--” a giant mouth pierced the wall and swallowed up the running soldiers, roaring with delight. Through the hole on the wall, the squad saw two dragon heads feasting and slaughtering the outside forces. 

“WE ARE CHANGING COURSE, MEN!” 

shouted the commander. 

Running faster than before,  they entered a new hall when a bolt of lightning struck down the commander.  Caught off guard by the sudden death of their leader, the soldiers didn’t prest any attention to the masked man who stepped forward from the shadows until he closed his tome, the sound echoing. 

“I am gonna ask only once. Where is princess Veronica held?”

\----

 

“Those things were...efficient to say the least. How did you even tame such beasts?” Hrid asked Kiran as he and the others made their way through the secret passage. 

“I just let them go for a walk once in a while.” said Kiran. The secret passage was hidden between some rocks behind the temple, a secret route to escape in case things went south for whoever was inside. The passage itself wasn’t very wide, but a small group of heroes plus the royals of Askr and Nilf could fit in. Luckily the great number allowed Kiran to assemble a team ready for whatever was waiting for them inside. Alongside him and the Askrian trio, Fjorm and his brother were also there, with Soleil, Nepheene, Lyn, Ike, Black Knight, Hector, Reinhart, Ishtar ,Delthea and Arvis.  Beside the noises outside caused by the grimas, the temple was...quiet. Deadly quiet for a place under attack. 

“They are already in position.” said Anna. 

“To be honest, two dragons bringing havoc outside is more efficient at alerting the troops than any alarm.” said Kiran. The Order reached a ramp of stairs above a river of lava, where Laegjarn and her troops were waiting for them. Kiran looked down to see the river bursting with flames. 

“I said it once, I’ll say it again, this place is a safety hazard for so many reasons it’s a miracle we didn’t find you all dead already.” he snarked looking at Laegjarn. The enemy general seemed to flinch for some reason. Sharena seemed to notice it, and so Alfonse. The Muspell princess was almost...shivering? 

“Oh come on, Laeg, you know how blatantly obvious things are. Your father is so evil that it’s comical, and I know that you care more about Muspell’s people than him. Just let us pass and you’ll probably end up being queen.” Kiran continued. Fjorm quieted Kiran, uncertain that his words had any effect, and stepped forward.

“Princess Laegjarn---”

“Wait Fjorm.” said Alfonse, his guts sensing something wrong. “Something is not right.” 

The princess of Ice tilted her head and looked at the enemy general, who was now sweating and heavy breathing. Even Silas, the hero assigned to her, was looking at her with concern. 

“MUSPELL! DRAGON OF FLAMES!” she shouted, echoing in the room. 

“I OFFER YOU MY FLESH!” 

“Arm and arm, leg and leg. My head, my heart...All of it offered, that you may feed. Devour me!” 

The river underneath started erupting with flames that rose and gathered around her, as Laegjarn seemed to be  physically in pain. With a yell, the fire roaming around her entered inside her throat and set her on fire. Her screams of pain froze everyone in shock, until with one last inhuman yell, she erupted in flames, covering her entirely. Her body was now made of flames, her eyes shining light as she extracted her sword and charged with a war cry. 

“Aww shit.” said Kiran. “LYN! SHOOT HER DOWN! IKE, BLACK KNIGHT AND SOLEIL MOVE UP AHEAD A BLOCK THE CAVALRY ON THE STAIRS, ISHTAR, DELTHEA, COVER THEM! REST OF YOU, YOUR TARGET IS THAT OVERSIZED IGNITED MATCH!” 

Following his instruction, the soldiers on foot acted as a wall to stop the enemy soldiers from advancing, with the mages backing them up. Ike, Black Knight and Soleil fought the first wave of soldiers on the stairs, trying to advance and gain equal ground. Ishtar and Delthea backed them up by shooting down the cavalry, scaring their horses and making them fall down in the river of fire. Laegjarn charged with her pegasus knights and engaged Lyn, Nephenee and Fjorm. Laegjarn was shouting, her voice contorted by the flames, her slashes formidable, leaving a trail of fire behind them. Nephenee clashed her lance with her sword, but the heat was unbearable, forcing the country girl to have only a few quick exchanges before having to head back.  The cry of the men falling down the lava gathered the attention of the princess, who noticing that Ishtar was inflicting heavy damage to the cavalry, charged towards her. Reinheart tried to strike her down, but the general managed to dodge his attacks with agility as she got closer to the godness of thunder. Delthea noticed the valkire of flames behind them and tried to help, managing to stop Laegjarn’s advance. However the general surprised everyone when she swung her sword and launched a dart of fire in the direction of Ishtar. The mage raised her hands to protect her as the dart was upon her. At the last second, a block of ice spurted from the ground and saved the Thunder godness. Confused for a second, Laegjarn reacted in time and rose her sword to parry a jumping attack from Fjorm’s lance. 

“GENERAL LAEGJARN. I AM YOUR ENEMY!” shouted Fjorm as she jumped back on the ground and charged in, her spear leaving a trail of ice behind her. The two elemental princesses clashed, making ice and fire explode around them, forcing everyone nearby to fall back from their fight. Kiran’s coat was going wild, forcing him to hold his hood with his hands in order to see what was going on. 

“Kiran, I can’t get a clear shot!” said Lyn, trying to aim her bow in the direction of the fight, the wind caused by the clash of hot air and cold air making it difficult to aim.

“FJORM, GET THE DOWN!” ordered Kiran. 

The princess turned for a second, and seeing Lyn, dropped on the ground, dodging Laegjarn’s attack. With the camp clear, Lyn shot and hit Laegjarn right in the chest. The general gasped without air,  her eyes wide in pain, using her wyvern’s neck as support. With a deaf growl, she grabbed the arrow and pulled it out. Her face sealed in an expression of pure hatred. She rose her sword up in the air, flames amassing above her, creating a literal storm of fire, much to the shock of everyone. Giving the order with a yell, the storm fire started crashing down a rain of fire upon the order of heroes. 

“IS THIS A FUCKING JOKE?” said Kiran. Fjorm plunged her lance into the ground, creating big blocks of ice around her.

“TAKE COVER!” shouted Anna grabbing Kiran by the hood and dragging him behind one of the improvised covers. 

“GREAT. WE ARE FIGHTING FIRE POWERED VALKYRIE!” he said, meteors of flames raining around him.

“Kiran, focus!” said Anna curling supin. 

Brave Veronica bolted with a jump behind the cover landing on the right of Kiran, quickly followed by a slightly roasted Nephenee and Soleil. The lancer’s hands were suffering a minor burn due to the heat Laegjarn’ sword, while Soleil was simply roughened up, despite stings of her pink hair in flames. 

“Had I known about the forecast I would have brought an umbrella with me!” said Soleil beaming, Nephenee putting out the parts of her pink hair on fire. 

“Knowing your clumsiness, you would have probably lost it before the occasion even presented itself.” said Veronica grabbing Nepheene’s wrists and healing her hands. 

“NOT TO BURST YOUR BUBBLE BUT IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T  NOTICED WE ARE FIGHTING A LITERAL HOT-HEADED MONSTER!!” scolded the commander. 

“What are you talking about the commander, Kiran is right there!” joked Soleil. 

Despite the rain of meteor crashing around them, the universe seemed to went silent to support Anna and Kiran’s stern stare at the pink mercenary. 

 

“Waaaaaaaaaaaah! not fair! I never get to make a joke!” said Soleil with a childish cry as she was ordered to take out Laegjarn.

“Shut ya mouth and GET MOVING!” yelled Nephenee, running alongside her as they left the cover to attack the general. The meteors from the storm started focusing towards the two heroes, that bolted left and right to dodge them while trying to get as close as possible to Laegjarn. 

“Neph! Let’s try the combo we worked on!” shouted Soleil spinning to cut an incoming ball of fire in half.

“AYE!” the lancer said while parrying a ball with her shield. The two darted in two different directions, still pointing forward, forcing Laegjarn to focus on one of them. The general roared as she wiped her sword and slashed in the direction of Nephenee. The lancer raised her shield in time to cover her face, the heat of wave and debris of molten lava making the shield boiling, starting to burn the cloth around her arm and assaulting the skin. With a swift spin, the lancer removed with the help of her lance the shield and gauntlet now fused to it, leaving her arm bare, and threw her lance with a mighty yell against the Muspell general. The lance struck the left side of the wyvern, making the beast roar in pain and obstructing the view of Laegjarn. Soleil then appeared underneath it, slashing the beast with her sword. 

“NEPH!” the pink haired swordsman yelled raising up her shield. Nephenee sprinted and used Soleil’s shield as a jumping platform to grab her lance and leap in the air. Laegjarn widened her eyes as she saw the blue lancer pointing her lance towards her chest. In a final attempt to stop her, she raised her sword once more, trying to impale the lancer. Nephenee tilted her head in the nick of time, the blade cutting her cheek and blasting her helm off her head. 

_ “Comin' through!”  _

Nephenee lance plunged into Laegjarn, the silent screams of the general echoing into nothing. The flames around her started going wild and cracks appeared around her body. Soleil grabbed Nephenee and pulled away right before the light erupted and the general exploded in a ball of flames, the explosion making everyone duck, with the exception of Kiran and Fjorm. Out of breath, Soleil and Nephenee slowly got up from the ground, embers and black ash still falling on the ground. 

“That was close.” said Soleil coffin. 

“Yeah, thanks for the safe.” said Nephenee blushing while scratching her head, her green hair wildly loose, scattered around her shoulders and the ground. In front of such beautiful sight Soleil blushed a tint similar to her hair.

“No problem! Maybe you can pay back with some tea?” she smiled. 

“Don’t get cocky now.” said Nephenee. 

Fjorm walked past them in a rush, followed by Kiran. 

“Great job, lasses!” he said in a hushed but genuinely tone before turning back to where Fjorm was. 

At the feet of the princess of ice, the burned body of Laegjarn laid on the ground around a black coat of ash, with an inch of her life left. 

“Laegjarn…” murmured Fjorm, kneeling and holding her head. 

“Spare me...your...pity...I..can't no longer be saved.” she said.

“This is the fate of those who offer themselves to the flames of Muspell. Extreme power..but for a short period of time...like the tale of the blazing Inpachi, destined to turn into ash when the fire quelled out. Death follows quickly…”

“Surely we can do somethin--”

“If you wanna do something, find my sister..please...protect her...she is all I have…” Laegjarn said, grabbing Fjorm’s arm.

“...I understand. We’ll do whatever we can to rescue her.” Fjorm said with a warm smile. 

Laegjarn seemed at ease after hearing that and laid her head to rest against the princess. She stared at her, her eyes white and bloody. 

“My eyes...the flames of Muspell have burned them away...I can’t see anything...and yet, only now...I can truly see you. Strange isn’t it?” she said with a soft smile. 

“Princess Fjorm, had we followed a different path in Nilf...perhaps we...we could have been…”

 

“....”

 

“...” Fjorm closed her eyes, a serene face painted on the muspell princess. 

“I hope you find peace.” said Fjorm. Kiran put a hand on her shoulder.

“I understand how you feel. But we have to hurry, or she won’t be alone for long.” 

Nodding, Fjorm rearmed herself and the Order moved forward. 

\---

 

“Sir, General Laegjarn has fallen in battle.” said the messenger. 

“Umph. Weak. Where is the squad I sent to fetch the tributes?” 

“Still no news about them.” 

“Mylord! There has been a breach in the east side, someone has sneaked in!”

“MYLORD! THE PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED!”

“....” said Surtr right eye shined in red light. 

“Gather the men and wait for me, I’ll take this on my own hand.” he said storming out of the room.

\---

 

In the undergrounds, a guard walked down the dark hallway and took a turn to the right. A massive fist buried in his face and knocked him out of the cold. Helbindi peaked over the corner and rushed through the hall to the other side. Halfway through, he realized he was alone. 

“Hey brat! You and your friend better hurry up if you don’t wanna get killed!”.  Ylgr and Veronica’s head peeked through the corner. 

“Ahh, sorry, but this place is so confusing!” Ylgr said, exhausted. 

“It’s like a maze here. Probably the only reason why they haven’t find us yet.” stated Veronica. 

“Up, down, left, right, I can’t do this anymore!” Ylgr said massaging her forehead.

“If you got forces to whine, you got forces to walk!” Helbindi said as he pushed the girl forward. A light cough his attention at the end of the corridor. Helbindi knew what it was. _ Guess my luck runs out now. _

“You two. Go ahead, I’ll catch up.”  he said to Veronica and Ylgr. 

“What? But--” 

“Go now, before I smack you with my ax!” he shouted. Veronica grabbed Ylgr’s wrist and pulled her away, ignoring the princess protests. 

“Shees, why doesn’t she simply follows what I say?” 

_ Guess she’s not much different from her… _

“Alright...now…” 

Surtr was standing before him, his gaze staring down his soul. 

“I thought I heard a mouse, and instead I found the dog I placed on the border.”

“King--” 

“ I remember you, treasonous cur. Save me the excuses.” he said,  his red eye glaring. “You dare rebel against me? Foolish, helpless and weak. You are nothing than trash taken from the gutter. And as your sister learned, we burn trash.” he said grinning.

“RRK!” Helbindi almost jumped on him with his axe, but he knew that his goal wasn’t killing him, but buying time. 

“Are those your last words? Don’t you want something else engraved on your tombstone?” he said maliciously. 

“Something to say? Yeah I got something to say! What you got coming for you...you deserve it.”

“YOU DOG!” Surtr said raising his axe.

_ Keep running brat, keep running. Let me at least save you. _

“YEAH, I’M A DOG THAT BITES YOU UGLY SON OF A--”

 

Ylgr and Veronica were running through the hallways when an explosion roared in the distance. Ylgr turned around, her eyes watering as she covered her mouth. 

“Sir Helbindi…?”

“...don’t make his sacrifice go to waste. Let’s go.” Veronica said, leaning forward.

 

\---

“Did they have in mind a temple while building this damn thing? It looks more like a maze than anything!” said Kiran as the Order finished gathering the prisoners and freeing Nina and Ophelia. 

“More importantly, remember that if you see any valuable object you bring it to me!” said Anna as the group marched forward. 

“Damnit Anna I am NOT adding pillaging to my War crimes list, I’m already in a bad situation with all the child soldiers in the Order!” said Kiran. 

\---

 

“Which way do we go now? If we don’t move Surtr will find us! And then we’ll be toasted more than pork at a banquet! No!  I cannot die here! Not until I meet my future love!”

“You truly never shut up.” said Veronica.  “ Uhm..Let’s go this way.” 

The two ended up in a large room full of soldiers. Ylgr yelped, catching the attention of everyone. The soldiers however did not move, and instead moved aside for Laevatein to show up, her gaze more cold than usual. 

“You are Surtr’s daughter.” pointed out Veronica.

“Daughter? No. To him I’m just a tool, not much different than a sword.”

“A-are you gonna capture us?” asked Ylgr. 

“Yes. And find the enemy. They will come for you eventually.”

“So I suppose Laegjarn has fallen.” stated Veronica. 

Laevatein drew her sword.

“Insult my sister and I will cut you down.” 

“You can try.” said Veronica. “Wonder how your father would react when he’ll found out to killed one of the tributes.”

Laevatein frowned. 

“Actually, it’s better if you kill me, I would rather die than become fuel for Surtr. And my brother doesn’t need to put his life at risk…” Veronica stepped forward, putting the sword towards her throat.

“Well? What are you waiting for?”

Laevatein’s eyes squinted, her grip trembling. Ylgr was trembling, covering her eyes in fear of what might happen. 

A bolt of lightning hit the ground, separating the two. 

\---

“Say how much have we walked now?” Kiran asked as the order regrouped after defeating another group of soldiers and heroes. 

A bolt of light shined in the upcoming room. 

\---

 

“Enough!” said Bruno, placing between Veronica and Laevatein. 

“BROTHER!” said Veronica rushing to his side, hugging him.

“Stay out of my way.” commanded coldly Laevatein. 

“Ylgr! Are you there?” asked Fjorm, entering in the room with the Order. 

“Fjorm! Yes, I am here!” she said waving, the troops of Laevatein separating them. 

“Kiran! Ylgr and Veronica are on the other side!” Fjorm said.

“Well then, let’s pass through!” he said as the heroes got ready to fight. 

“Guess just for this one time we can help you out princess Veronica!” said beaming Sharena, making (both) Veronica frown. 

“Askrans! Where is my sister? Did you kill her?” asked Laevatein. 

“We--” started Fjorm. 

“Well it really depends on how you value someone’s actions when pushed--” started Kiran before Anna stomped on his foot to shut him up.

“I cannot forgive this…” Laevatein said coldly. 

“Wait are you gonna let me finish?” asked Kiran before Sharena covered his mouth with her hand.

“I will kill you. Not for father, but for what you have done! Every single one!”

“OOOOooookkkaayyy sheesh.”

Anna grabbed Kiran by the hood and pulled him away before a blast from one of the mages fried him. 

“Hey Anna! this is the only hood I have! Don’t pull so rouh--”

“Kiran!” shouted Anna.

Kiran noticed in time ducked to avoid another blast, this time burning off the tip of his hood. Noticing the damaged, he saw red. 

“MEH FUCKIN GERLFRIEND GAVE ME DES HOOD YA BLOODY CHUMPS, I’LL HAVE YA FOCKING HEADS.” shouted on top of his lungs Kiran, spit drooling from his mouth. 

“REINHEARD, HECTOR, I WANNA SEE HEADS ROLLIN” He instructed furious. The two, alongside the other heroes, rushed to the battlefield, creating chaos. Laevatein suddenly found herself in a storm of magic blasts, being the ones launched by the mages or reflected by the Hector. The girl tried her best to command her troops and fight off the heroes, but it wasn’t long before one of the blasts exploded behind her, sending her flying out of the centre of the battle. Standing on her elbow, she noticed the summoner was in clear view...and he was undressing?

 

Kiran took off his coat, trying to estimate how much damage was done. 

“Kiran! You alright?” asked Anna.

“Like hell I am. The bloody hood has a hole the size of Loch Ness! Bloody hell.” his voice cracking here and there. 

“Hey, come on it’s just a hood, we’ll get you another--”

“Like hell it’s just another hood, it’s the hood ya gave me! You! Always obsessed with having money and making new schemes to gain more! The one who wants to cut corners by removing the showers! The value of this bloody thing for me goes beyond any cheap red-colored chest we could find in this shitty temple!” he said. 

Anna was taken aback, visibly blushing, and the sounds of the battle seemed to quiet down as they locked eye. Kiran was blushing, staring at her. Almost leaning in to kiss,  a wall of fire snapped them out of their trance, as Laevatein got ready to attack again. 

“HOLY-- I GOT A LITERAL ORDER OF HEROES WITH ME AND THIS BRAT MANAGES TO REACH ME ANYWAY?!” he shouted.

“KIRAN!” 

Anna  jumped in front of him and blocked Laevatein with her axe, barely holding her off, the heat of the sword making her sweat. 

“KIRAN, I CAN’T HOLD HER FOR LONG, THINK OF SOMETHING!”

“UHHHH...REIN--” The mage knight was in the middle of the fight, distracting him would be a fatal error. 

“HECT--” the axe wielder was in the same situation. 

The others were caught in the fight as well. He was alone. This wasn’t much different than his first fight alongside Anna, at the very beginning. But this time around they weren't fighting a common axe fighter. Anna had the disadvantage, and Kiran knew she didn’t have chances against the fury that was Laevatein. But something needed to be done. Looking at his coat, a desperate idea popped up. “Broke the hold!” ordered Kiran. Anna rose her axe, disarming both her and Laevatein. Using the moment, Kiran rushed towards her and launched his coat on her,  covering the Muspell princess.

“ANNA! HIT HER NOW!” shouted Kiran

Counting on the momentary blindness that his coat was providing, Anna swung her axe with all her might, aiming at her chest, her special activating as sparks started sprung from her axe. 

_ “THIS ONE’S ON THE HOUSE!” _ Anna yelled with her usual smile. 

 

That smile died out as a blast of fire tore the coat in pieces and Anna was face to face with Laevatein stern gaze, her attack blocked by her swords as the sparks died in a deaf sound of blades clashing. Kiran cursed under his breath. Laevatein disarmed Anna with a swung and kicked her down in the stomach, making the commander curl up in a ball.

“Anna--!”

Kiran was cut short by Laevatein sword poking his throat. The muspell princess seemed visibly tired, her hair messy as she was breathing heavily. 

“You…” her voice cold.

“You killed her…” she muttered, her sword trembling. 

_ Maybe I can reason with her. Come on Kiran, bring out the good ol summoner charm _

“Look, ain’t my fault if she decided to become a light living matc--”

“ **GWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”**

“ _ why do I talk _ .” 

Kiran closed his eyes, ready to feel the burning embrace of death, but instead he felt his face...cold? Opening his eyes, he saw Fjorm’s lance holding Laevatein off. 

“I’m sorry. Had to deal with a maid who was throwing some odd metal stars.”

“FJORM!” 

The lancer pushed back Laevatein and attacked, the lance’s tip scraping the ground and forming spears of ice before she swung it like a golf club

_ YOU WON’T GET PAST ME!”  _

A wave of spiking ice split the ground towards Laevatein, erupting in a block of spikes underneath the muspell princess, knocking her out. Nilf’s royal relaxed, spinning her lance back in its usual position. 

“Sorry again for--” Fjorm stiffened when Kiran hugged her, his bare arms holding her tight.

“Thank you, Fjorm. You just saved me and Anna’s sorry asses.” he said burying his face onto the princess’ shoulder.

“...no worries.” she replied, her lips curling in a soft smile.

“Actually, one worry.” Kiran pointed with his finger toward Laevatein. The muspell princess was still standing on her feet, her twin tails undone and overlapping her face. 

“Ah...ah..ah...I...I can...still fight!” she said struggling to stand up.

“Flames...OF MUSPELL!” 

NO!” Fjorm said, rushing towards Laevatein. 

“Muspell, dragon of flame...I offer you my flesh..“

“STOP!”

“Arm and Arm, leg and leg, my head...my heart..all of it is offered, that you may feed. Devour me…” Laevatein said as the flames started forming around her.

“Not again!” Fjorm shouted plunging her lance in the ground and killing off the flames. 

“This is not what your sister wanted!” Fjorm said. 

“W-what..?” 

“In her last moments, Princess Laegjarn’s only wish was that you should live.”

“My sister...ordered me to live?”

“Ordered? No, Laevatein. She cared about you. It was her dying wish that you be saved…”

Laevatein stood stunt, her eyes lost without focus.

“Laegjarn…” 

Fjorm kneeled down, eye level with the muspell princess. 

“One day, Nilf and Muspell will cease hostilities. There will be peace between our countries. Muspell needs you until then. Live. Fulfil your sister’s wish. 

“Peace...with you?” 

“I would like it. But unfortunately I’m afraid I’ll soon join your sister on the other side.” said Fjorm holding Laevatein’s hand. The muspell princess felt the cold of her hand and understood. 

With a whistle, she ordered her men to lower down their weapons. The battle was over. 

\-----

“Askr...I thank you deeply for saving my sister.” said Bruno. The Askrian trio gathered around Bruno with happy faces, despite Veronica hiding behind him and giving them cold stares while holding for her life his brother’ side. Sharena jumped on her feet as she shook Bruno, overjoyed to see him again. Even Alfonse couldn’t help but smile. 

“Zacharias...It’s been--”

“WELL LOOK AT WHO DECIDED TO SHOW UP AT THE LAST SECOND!” intervened Kiran. “WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN? DID YOU GET STUCK ON TOP IF A PILLAR FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS?” 

“I was--”

“I MEAN IT’S NOT LIKE YOUR SISTER’S LIFE WAS ON THE LINE! By the way, hello Veronica.” Kiran said in an almost cordial way to the princess. 

“Uh..h-hello?” said Veronica confused. 

“I know that it can be difficult to understand...but all I want is protect my sist--”

“WELL THEN YOU COULD HAVE JOINED US ALONGSIDE HRID! I MEAN, HE WAS THE ONE WHO HAD YOUR MAP! THINKING OF IT, WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST GIVE US THE MAP?! WHY DID YOU PLAY THE MYSTERIOUS KNIGHT?!”

“Well, it’s not that easy--”

“BRUNO!” Brave Veronica yelled as she jumped off her horse and hugged Bruno. 

“VERONICA?!” Bruno and the askrian trio yelled. 

“Veronica?” Veronica asked.

“Veronica…??????” asked Kiran confused. 

“Even if you’re not my real brother, just to see you again…” Brave Veronica said, her eyes watering as she dug her head further into Bruno’s chest. 

“Hey. Get off him.” said coldly Veronica. 

“Hold your tongue, spoiled princess, he is still my brother.” barked back Brave Veronica, making Kiran oohing. 

“Why don’t you go find your own brother?” 

“Why don’t you go and fall in a pitch?” 

The two Veronicas stared each other, the tension between them so high it could lead to the discovery of electricity in Zenith. 

“I-I see, you are a Veronica from another world…” said Bruno trying to defuse the situation. 

“Yes, I was summoned in this world by Kiran.” Bruno looked a Kiran with a puzzled expression as if he was waiting for explanations. The summoner suddenly felt for some unknown reason a cold run down his spine. 

“Wait. YOU DRAGGED MY SISTER INTO THIS WAR?!” Shouted Bruno. 

“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!” Kiran tried to justify himself. 

“MY ARCH THUNDER FRYING YOU WHERE YOU STAND WILL BE AN ACCIDENT.”

“Zacharias, we’ll have all the time to talk later. Surtr waits.” Alfonse intervened, bringing everyone back to the current situation. 

“Yes, prince Alfonse, we need to put an end to this.” Bruno said shifting back in his usual tone.

“DON’T ACT ALL COOL AND MYSTERIOUS LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED!” barked Kiran. 

But Alfonse was right. 

The tributes were safe, but one last thing remained to be done. The one that Kiran, ironically, considered it the easiest. 

As they entered the final room, the heat suddenly rose up. Surtr was standing in the middle of the room, his soldiers around him. 

“Ahahah! The stray pups have wandered my way at last!” Surtr laughed as the Order of Heroes reached the throne room. 

“Well, well! Come and challenge me, for there can only be one king. I will sear that lesson--”

“Shut up.” said Kiran. 

“What?!” 

“Shut up. I’m tired. And you’re boring. Let’s just get this over with.” 

“You dare speak to me like that?” 

“Like what? You’re stupid. Everything you say is stupid.”

“Why you insolent…”

“Kiran every time you spoke today you kinda made things worse so maybe this time--” Alfonse said in an attempt to not make things worse. 

“Trust me Alfonse, this is the actual time I know what I am saying.” replied Kiran serious. 

“I’m tired of you. You’re stupid Surtr. Your motivation is stupid. Your goal is stupid. Your castle is stupid. Everything about you screams stupid. Your actions are so despicably evil and empty that I'm surprised that people still follow you. You’re not an individual, you’re a carbon copy of a villain of a fable, and a shitty one at that. The only reason you made it thus far was only thanks to your stupidly strong power that covered your ass up until now, but guess what, now that’s gone. You have nothing. You’re a joke villain, and you deserve to be treated as such.” Kiran finished as a light started forming behind him, air converging around it. 

“So, today I would like to teach you something. Let me introduce you a “proper” villain. Imagine him as you, only better in any aspect.” Kiran stepped aside, revealing a mage charging his attack. A gigantic ball of flames was forming above his palm, his red locks waving in the wind caused by the heat. 

“Surt, meet Arvis, proper emperor of flames. Arvis.  _ How about you give him a taste of  one of your famous barbeque.” _

Arvis smiled as he launched the ball of fire against Surtr. 

“I have watched you, king of flames. Your rule is hollow. The world you’re building is cruel and unkind, no one will be able to live in peace. Having such vision as the ideal world...it’s something I utterly despise.

_ I sentence you to death!”  _

The ball came crashing down towards Surtr and his soldiers, who quickly ran away leaving the monarch to face the giant sphere alone.

“COWARDS! THE FLAMES ONLY ANSWER TO ME!” Surtr charged head on the sphere, his arms extending in order to get a better grip on it. For the first time in a long time, Surtr felt pain as the ball burned his arms and face. Yet, working through the pain, the king actually managed to stop the advance of the ball. 

“Not bad.” said Kiran, before looking at Arvis and nodding. 

The mage snapped his fingers, and the ball exploded right in front of Surtr’s face. 

Light and flames engulfed the king, who screamed as he felt the fire actually scraping his skin and burning him. 

The room shook for the explosion, and a dense wall of fog rose where the ball exploded. 

“Is it over?” asked Lyn.

“Not yet.” Said Arvis. 

Out of the smoke emerged the figure of Surtr, badly hurt, his armour in shambles, half of his face burned. With a few stumbling steps, he tried to raise his axe. 

“THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE! IT’S CAN’T BE HAPPENING! I AM INVINCI--” 

Surtr noticed a blur dashing down on him, a white smear, and then he felt something cold scraping his teeth. He looked down and saw a long lance, held by the hands of Princess Fjorm. The nilf princess’ gaze was cold, her expression stern as she twisted the lance inside his mouth with a grunt. Spears of ice erupted from Surtr’s back in all directions, tearing holes in his armour and flesh as they spread until they pierced the nearest wall. Fjorm pulled off the lance with a little struggle, her expression neutral. 

But Surtr still lived.

“I...ghon’t...ughersthand…” he muttered. “How...it was my will…”

“How you ask, Surtr?” Fjorm spoke. “It’s simple. You are weak.”

“I..AGHM NOHT YOUR HEQUAL!”

“You have taken so much away from us Surtr. Much more than you could ever answer for...and now we’ll take it back. Every single one bit of it.”

“GHRRRRR” Surtr groaned as the ice started taking over his body, freezing him. 

“I...am….INVINCIBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” Surtr yelled the s fire started erupting from him, spreading in all directions as the walls started shaking and cracking. 

“WAIT IS HE GONNA--” 

Surtr exploded in flames, the soundwave knocking everyone down as the wall started collapsing, the floor itself started splitting up. 

“KIRAN! THIS PLACE IS GOING DOWN!” 

“AW BLOODY HELL, EVERYONE GET OUT!” 

 

Everyone started running, pieces of the roof coming off and falling in the new formed rivers of flames, the muspell soldiers running in fear and getting crushed by the falling stone walls or falling to their deaths. The Order managed to get out of the castle and get to a safe distance as it crumbled onto itself before exploding in a beam  of fire going beyond the dark clouds. 

 

“...still third rate villain.” said Kiran. 

 

“Oh my gods. We did it! We defeated Surtr!” said Sharena with a smile on her face. 

“We did.” said Alfonse smiling. 

“It’s over...it’s finally over.” Fjorm said smiling, falling to her knees. “Mother...sister...I’ve done it…”

“You truly did, Fjorm.” Hrid said, sitting beside her. Ylgr instead jumped on her head, cheering for this war to be finally over. 

“WELL, YA KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!” Kiran beamed with happiness as he pulled out a bottle and unwrapped the top.

“TIME TO CELEBRATE!”  he said cheery, but as he took the first sip his expression frowned. Looking at the bottle in a weird way he raised his gaze to meet the confused expressions of everyone else. 

“Kiran?” 

“This...this has a different taste. It feels weird. Why does it feel weird?”

“Well, maybe after being sober so long you kinda lost your taste for it?” 

Kiran’s eyes widened. 

“Oh shit. You are right. This stuff actually feels like shit. Oh God.  I can’t drink this stuff anymore. I am cursed to stay sober. Oh no.” 

Kiran threw the bottle towards the ruins, furious. 

“CURSE YOU, SHITTY THIRD RATE VILLAIN! YOU MADE ME SOBER! ROT IN HELL!” 

Kiran sighted as Anna moved her head under his arm and popped up under his shoulder. 

“Aw, cheer up. At least we get to go home now.” 

“Well, I suppose…”

“Also, it means I can get you a new coat!” said Anna. 

“...yeah, I would really like that. Feels weird without a hood.” 

“That’s right Kiran, cheer up. We are finally going home. I’m sure we’ll have a great feast once we return.” said Alfonse.

“Eh, having a great buffet without being able to enjoy a drink. Guess this will be the death of me…” 

Everyone started laughing as they finally head back home. 

 

_ \--- _

“I am so glad this is over.” said Veronica while resting her head on his brother’s chest. Bruno had managed to sneak her away from the falling castle, although separating themself from the order. Now they were going back home on Bruno’s horse. 

“Veronica, I hope this teaches you to be wary of stipulating alliances with unthrusty individuals.” said Bruno. 

“If you are trying to convince me to give up the war against Askr, I’m afraid you’re ignoring the fact that the summoner is a rather unthrusty individual.”

“It’s easy to judge a person by his front. Maybe, if you gave him a chance, you could understand why one version of you is allied with him. Won’t you ever give him a chance?” 

Veronica reflected on those words. In the end, the summoner did save her. And if he wanted, he could have to get rid of her or her hero version at any time. And yet he never did….

A bottle came down the hill and hit her in the head. Landing right in front of her, Veronica noticed it was the shitty brand of liquor the summoner always drank. 

“No.” replied Veronica to Bruno. 

 

\---

“You still haven’t told them.” said Hrid. 

“It would be rude to ruin their good mood.” replied Fjorm.

“But Fjorm, you performed the ritual of Frost. Although not immediate as the ritual of flames, the result is still the same.”

“Don’t worry, I come to peace with the little time I have left.”

“So, you’ll stay with them?”

“It’s the least I can do. After all they have done for us.”

“I understand.” 

“Beside...being in the Order of Heroes, technically I am bound in a contract with Kiran, so as long he is here, maybe I won’t die. No one of the heroes can.”

 

Her words echoed, as her face faded in a crystal ball. Slim, skully fingers held the ball, repeating the princess words over and over again. 

 

**“We’ll see about that.”** said the figure as she sat on her throne of skeletons, while a pale girl watched in disgraugh the scene. 

“ **We’ll see.”**

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after this one I want to go back and write dumb shit.  
> But let me know what did you think about it!


	29. The biggest fan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faye ain't the only one to admire Alm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to my bullshit

Life in the Order of Heroes was a pretty strange experience. You often found yourself fighting side by side with your once sworn enemies or deceased companions, living a quiet relaxed life between one fight and the other. Alm, being reunited with his Celica, couldn’t ask for more (except maybe hang out with all the current three versions of her girlfriend roaming around the castle.), as he spent the peaceful moments he had with his beloved. Yet Alm couldn’t scroll off the feeling he had lately of being watched, as if someone was constantly keeping an eye on him. 

One day, while Alm and Celica were walking down the main hallway chatting, a large figure appeared in front of them. The man was huge, with a red armor covering his body with the exception of his head, with long white hair, his eyes just white pupils, contorted in a frown as he looked down on the couple. 

“Uhm..can I help you?” asked Alm raising his eyebrow. 

“Yes. Are you Alm?” replied the man. His voice was deep and imposing, and Celica could feel it reverberate inside her body.

“That would be me, yes.” Alm replied, still unsure where this situation was heading. The man seemed to stiffening a little. 

“Saint King Alm, my name is Walhart!” shouted the conqueror. 

“I am the conqueror of Valm,  set to unify the world under my rule!” he continued. 

“Ooooohhhhkay…” said Alm uncertain. What was this guy talking about? Walhart perceived Alm’s confused tone and seemed disconserned. With a quick inhale, he stiffed his shoulders.       “I ask of you, one king to the other, if you may sign the paper with your signature!” he shouted handing him a piece of paper with an inkwell. Alm looked at the white sheet with confusion, and took the inkwell to write down his name. It had passed some time since the last  handwriting practice he had, but overall he was satisfied with the end result. Celica and Walhart leaned over him in curiosity. The zofian princess studied Walhart and finally understood what was going on. 

“Say, it’s ok if I sign it too?” asked Celica.

“IT’S MORE THAN WELCOME” screamed Walhart. Celica took the pen and wrote down her name. Her signature was more soft and elegant than Alm, and kinda reflect the differences in the two lovers. 

“Here you go.” said Celica handing over him the sheet. Walhart looked at the paper  and made the oddest sound it could have possible come out of his mouth. The only time Alm heard something similar was when Faye accidentally stumbled upon him while he was changing clothes. Silence fell after that odd squeak, and Celica could have sworn the giant conqueror was red in his cheeks. 

“I thank you.” he said before turning around and walking away. 

“What...was that all about?” asked Alm confused. 

“I think you have another fan beside Faye.” said Celica smiling. 

Alm scratched his head, confused. 

That same day Kiran was left stunt by Walhart’s request of having transferred in his room a frame, an altar and a dozen candles. 


	30. The training session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a simple day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is weird, I kinda wanted to give off this "mundane oddness" to it. Also I need to proofread it later, so apologies in advance.

It was a plain day of sun. 

The breeze caressed softly the green grass, petals and spores getting carried away in the blue sky. A little tulip hitted its head against the leg of the wood set, the red spot marked on it’s centre shining as the sun hit it. The silence broken as an arrow pierced the air and plunged itself at the border of the red spot. 

“Not bad.” said Gordin, leaning on the tree’s hunk with his arms crossed. 

“Not good enough.” replied Takumi, shaking his head as he grunted and took his place against the tree. It was right past lunch time, the sun was shining bright in the sky and it was hot enough that the archers were all resting under the only tree nearby. Even the one who had the shooting turn was covered by the leafs shadows.  

“You are too hard on yourself, Takumi.” Lyn said getting in position. She stretched her bow and aimed. A moment of silence fell before she released her fingers and the arrow flew in the air and pierced the red spot. 

“Woah.” said Gordin. 

“...” frowned Takumi. 

“Come on Takumi, don’t feel bad if Lyn here it’s a natural. Her people live in the valleys hunting for a living, it’s obvious she learned to use a bow since when she was young.” said Jeorge as he rose up and took position. Gordin in particular focused on the blonde archer’ stance. Jeorge’s expression was completely focused on the target. His body didn’t flinch as he knocked the arrow, splitting Lyn’s and piercing the center. 

“It’s only a matter of experience.”

Takumi was surprised by the skills displayed by the blonde archer, Gordin on the other hand, was squealing. 

“Master, that was so cool!” 

“No need to flatter, Gordin. Say, why don’t you show me how much you’ve improved?” asked Jeorge. Gordin tried to recompose himself, and taking the place of his mentor, he took a deep breath as he aimed at the target. His eyes adjusted, focusing on the wood stable. Suddenly, something else caught his attention. Black dots were walking across the horizon line. 

“Uhm, guys, did any of you know if there was suppose to pass a squad nearby today?” asked Gordin. The other archers turned their attention on the horizon, studying the black spots. 

“Not that I know about.” 

“They seem headed to west.”

“There is a nearby village heading west.” 

Lyn squinted her eyes, noticing the black cloth and black flag. 

“Those are Embla soldiers.” she said barring her eyes. Everyone armed themself with their bow and place on at the side of the other. 

“Given the distance, I say aiming with a  common 45°will do.” said Jeorge. 

“No, look at them with your thumb. They are smaller than that. I say we aim at 75°, Lyn said.

“....there is also the wind to consider. The fact that they are moving makes them harder to hit. Aim it like this.” said Takumi adjusting his aim. 

“You have experience on moving targets?” asked Gordin.

“Yeah. Nohrian borders.”

\----

“Commander.” said the red swordsman. The red knight ignored him. 

“Commander.” still nothing. 

“Commander!” 

“WHAT?!” The knight turned. 

“We’ve been travelling for hours, our shield knight is boiling inside the armor. Shouldn't we rest for a bit?”

“Rest? REST? You know what will happen if we rest?! I’ll tell you what will happen, last thing you know and a freaking arrow will pierce--” 

The commander fell from the horse as the arrow pierced his head, the impact so violent that it unseated him. Quickly another arrow fell,  than another and another. Soon enough a rain of arrows fell upon them.

“RETREAT! RETREAAAAAT!” yelled the red swordsman.

\---

The archers were silent as they shot their arrows. After 5 minutes, only one emblian soldier was still standing, running away for dear life. 

“Should we let him go?” asked Lyn. 

Takumi shot an arrow without warning. The arrow flew high in the air, before landing right on top of the soldier, who fell on the ground. 

“One can still do too much damage.” said Takumi. 

“But…” tried to argue Lyn. 

“As much of cruel it could be, one stranded soldier can be as dangerous as five.” said Jeorge. 

“Beside, warning the enemy of our possible location could be dangerous, even if it’s a simple archery practice spot.”

“...” Gordin didn’t express himself. 

“At least I had aim when it mattered.” muttered Takumi to himself while walking away. 

“We should keep an eye on him, sometimes he worries me.”

There was a silent nodding from all parties as they followed Takumi. 

They retrieve their arrows and everyone walked their own way. 

The wind still blew a light breeze over the field. 

It was a  plain day of sun. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't forget to tell me your opinions about   
> my stories!


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